BAY AREA DAY OF REMEMBRANCE 2010
Dreams Interrupted, Dreams Fulfilled
San Francisco, CA — The annual Bay Area Day of Remembrance (DOR) commemoration will take place on Sunday, February 21, 2010, 2 p.m., in San Francisco Japantown at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, with reception to follow at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California.
This year’s Day of Remembrance theme, “Dreams Interrupted, Dreams Fulfilled,” recognizes the honorary degrees recently awarded to Japanese Americans whose educations were disrupted by the relocation and internment of the Japanese American community during WWII, and to the enduring value the community places on receiving an education. The 2010 Day of Remembrance will be MC’d by KTVU Channel 2 News reporter Jana Katsuyama, with a keynote by California State Assemblyman Warren Furutani, author of CA Assembly Bill 37, granting honorary degrees to the Nisei who were removed from their educational pursuits. This year’s program will also feature the presentation of the 2010 Clifford Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian Award to distinguished human and civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama. Additionally, the Purple Moon Dance Project, choreographed by Jill Togawa, will perform excerpts of their work, “When Dreams are Interrupted,” revisiting the forced removal of the Berkeley Japanese community in 1942.
DOR has been an annual inspiring expression of the Japanese American community’s vitality. Through cultural presentations, education and a candle lighting ceremony, the event commemorates the incarceration of over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II. In post 9/11 years, as the nation has struggled through war abroad and other communities have been targeted as “the enemy,” DOR has also become a time for diverse communities to stand together to carry the light for justice and reaffirm a united commitment to civil and human rights today.
The traditional candle lighting ceremony will feature a diverse array of community volunteers and advocates, and include shakuhachi music by Masayuki Koga. The program will close with an Interfaith Gathering and Procession, led by the Japanese American Religious Federation from the theater to the Japanese Cultural and Community Center, where a reception will conclude the day.
The Bay Area Day of Remembrance program is organized annually by the Bay Area Day of Remembrance Consortium, with support from various Japanese American and Asian American community organizations throughout the Bay Area, including: Asian Improv aRts, Asian Law Caucus, API Legal Outreach, Japanese American Religious Federation, Japanese Community Youth Council, Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, Campaign for Justice – Redress Now for Japanese Latin Americans, Center for Asian American Media, Nakayoshi Young Professionals, National Coalition for Redress & Reparations, National Japanese American Historical Society, Tule Lake Committee, San Francisco JACL Chapter and the UC Berkeley Nikkei Student Union (partial list).
Tickets prices are $15 (door); $12 (advance); and group rates $10 (for 10 or more in advance). Call NJAHS for tickets at: (415) 921-5007.
Tickets can also be purchased online at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/99800
