Sat., Feb. 19, 4 pm
Dana St. lawn
First Church Berkeley will host a Berkeley City-led commemorative event this Sat., Feb. 19, at 4 pm on the Dana St. lawn to mark Berkeley’s recently adopted resolution, which designates Feb. 19 as Japanese American Remembrance Day. Feb. 19 is the 80th anniversary of FDR’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which led to the imprisonment without charges of some 120,000 West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry. In Berkeley, some 1,300 “persons of Japanese ancestry, alien or non-alien” were forced to leave homes, jobs, and schools and were taken in the custody of the US Army. First Church provided space in Pilgrim Hall for Japanese Americans to gather as an alternative to the US Army’s outdoor assembly location (see photo of plaque below).
