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Contact: Diane Tanaka
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GO FOR BROKE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION CO-SPONSORS
PANEL DISCUSSION AND DISPLAY OF “120,000 TASSEL TAPESTRY”
IN GARDENA
Panel Session Held as Day of Remembrance
Tribute to the Signing of Executive Order 9066 -- Leading to the
Evacuation of Japanese Americans During WWII
Torrance, Calif. (February 3, 2003) –
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 9066, directing the forced evacuation of 120,000 Japanese
Americans into U.S. concentration camps during World War II. As
part of its Day of Remembrance tribute, the Go For Broke Educational
Foundation in cooperation with the City of Gardena will host a
free panel discussion on February 18 at 6 p.m. and display the
“120,000 Tassel Tapestry” at the Ken Nakaoka Community
Center in Gardena. The tapestry, created by middle school students
in Indiana to pay homage to the Japanese American experiences
during World War II, will be on display February 18-19. Panelists
who will recount experiences during WWII include veterans from
the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and
Military Intelligence Service, as well as Japanese American concentration
camp survivors.
The tapestry project, developed by award-winning foreign language
teacher Leila Meyerratken from Lafayette, Indiana, was completed
by 500 eighth grade students from Tecumseh and Sunnyside middle
schools, none of whom were of Japanese American ancestry. Meyerratken
realized the importance of engaging her students in a project
that would teach tolerance through the discrimination Japanese
American veterans and the thousands of Japanese Americans incarcerated
in U.S. concentration camps faced during World War II. Each of
the 120,000 tassels of the tapestry represents a Japanese American
incarcerated under Executive Order 9066.
Under the approval of President Roosevelt after the bombing of
Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 placed all persons of Japanese
ancestry on the West Coast into a series of War Relocation Authority
(WRA) camps set up in remote areas of the United States. In an
effort to understand the significance and repercussions of this
event, Meyerratken and her students produced the tapestry to educate
the public, especially other school-aged children, on the importance
of maintaining the civil liberties for all citizens of the United
States.
The hand-stitched tapestry features 12 panels, each representative
of a year during World War II, revealing a story and history through
its collection of poems, artworks, and personal artifacts donated
from Japanese American veterans and concentration camp survivors.
The result of this extensive project illuminates the lives and
memories of those Japanese American veterans who served their
country with honor, while empathizing to the devastation of those
families imprisoned in Japanese American concentration camps.
The display of the tapestry will be open to the public from 2-5
p.m. on February 18 and from 1-5 p.m. on February 19. A formal
introduction by Mayor of Gardena, Terrance Terauchi, and a panel
discussion will proceed at 6 p.m. on February 18. Free parking
is available at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center, which is located
at 1670 W. 162nd Street in Gardena. For more information, please
contact the Go For Broke Educational Foundation at 310-328-0907.
The Go For Broke Educational Foundation institutes educational
programs focused on the heroism and history of the Japanese American
soldiers of World War II, as well as the incarceration of Japanese
Americans and civil liberties issues raised by those events. Currently
the Educational Foundation’s programs include An American
Story teacher training workshops and curriculum development, Hanashi:
Oral History Program, and select media projects. For more information,
go to www.goforbroke.org.
In 1989 Japanese American World War II veterans established the
100th/442nd/MIS WWII Memorial Foundation to build the Go For Broke
Monument as an eternal tribute to the heroics of the segregated
Japanese American units: 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental
Combat Team, MIS (Military Intelligence Service) and the many
other men and women who served overseas during World War II. The
Monument is located in downtown Los Angeles at Temple and Alameda
streets.
