Eric K. Yamamoto

Beyond Redress: Japanese Americans' Unfinished Business

I am honored to be here at such a diverse gathering. This Day of Remembrance will likely mean many different things for different people. It will mean one thing for those who suffered the internment, struggled for redress and received an apology and reparations. It will mean something different for children and grandchildren of internees who have lived with the family tremors of the racial incarceration. And it will mean something else for Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Southeast and South Asians, and for Native Hawaiians, Latinos and African Americans as well as for those who are politically active in social justice movements. I hope to speak to all of you today, and especially to those drawn by the theme for todays commemoration: Remembrance Through Action. I will begin by weaving together three stories that illuminate the experiences we commemorate today.