Wednesday, February 19, marked a grim anniversary in American history: 83 years ago, an executive order led to the mass incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans. The trauma from the forced removals still remains today, as Seattle held its Day of Remembrance rally.
Prof. Vince Schleitwiler's great-grandfather was incarcerated in Salinas. "To look at the images of him, and to understand what he went through but then to be able to stand here and feel his presence and think about what it might mean for his spirit," Schleitwiler said. Schleitwiler's son Tom was also wearing what looked like a luggage tag with a name and an alien number. "This is my name, but it's also the name of my great grandfather's brother, who was just two years older than I was when he went to the camps," Tom said.
Prof. Schleitwiler lives this history daily. He is an American Ethnic Studies teacher at the University of Washington. He said the government was eager to remove Japanese Americans even before the executive order.
"We have learned really important lessons. One of the refrains in the community is we must be the friends and allies that we needed in 1942," Schleitwiler said.
Read the full article found on Seattle's King 5 news. For a more in-depth look at Executive Order 9066, scroll to the end of the article to watch King 5's reporting Facing Race.