A child of Japanese incarceration’s call to arms: ‘The lessons of Manzanar have never been more urgent’
Summary
Performance artist Dan Kwong helped restore a baseball field at Manzanar, the California camp where his mother and aunt were incarcerated during World War II. At the field’s reopening, he and other speakers linked the history of Japanese American incarceration to current immigration detention and racial discrimination.Key Facts
- The U.S. government incarcerated about 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
- Manzanar was one of the camps where Japanese Americans were confined during the war.
- Kwong, a 71-year-old Los Angeles performance artist, spent years working to restore Manzanar’s baseball field.
- Players from Japanese American baseball teams took part in a double-header at the restored field.
- Kwong played for the Li’l Tokio Giants, a team he has been part of for 54 years, and in an all-star game.
- Kwong said the history of Manzanar should be treated as a call to action, not only as a warning from the past.
- Japanese American National Museum chief executive Ann Burroughs said racism and xenophobia linked to the incarceration remain urgent concerns.
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