Berkeley Community Marks Japanese American Day of Remembrance

February 19, 2022

BERKELEY – Members of the Berkeley community, including descendants of survivors who were sent to concentration camps, gathered with Mayor Jesse Arreguín and Hiroshi Kawamura, Consul General of Japan to San Francisco, to commemorate Japanese American Day of Remembrance. Today marks 80 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066, which forced the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry in the United States during World War II. 1,300 of them were Berkeley residents, who had built a vibrant community in Berkeley in the decades before the War, only for most of them to lose everything once they returned.

“Today is a somber reminder of an ugly chapter in American history, but it is something we must reflect on and acknowledge to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past” said Mayor Arreguín.

The event took place outside the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, which was the site where Berkeley residents of Japanese ancestry were gathered before boarding buses to be sent to concentration camps. Members of the church’s congregation who were opposed to the policy provided care and comfort to the families in the days leading up to their forced internment. Recognized today as a blatantly racist policy, at the time of the signing of the Order it received widespread support among the American public. In the decades afterwards, the US Government issued a formal apology for the Order, and provided monetary reparations to the survivors.

Japanese American Day of Remembrance was first observed in the State of Washington in 1976, with California recognizing it in 1986. In 2017, an event was held at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley where a plaque was installed to recognize Berkeley’s victims of internment and the efforts of Berkeley residents who supported them. In February 2022, the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution recognizing in perpetuity Japanese American Remembrance Day on February 19th.