https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/posts/10151434700557695

#CAIR: Calif. Muslims to Join Japanese Americans in Manzanar Camp Pilgrimage (April 25, 2013 – SACRAMENTO, Calif.) –

On Friday, April 26th, members of the Japanese-American and Muslim community, along with participants from various backgrounds, will participate in the 8th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. Leaving from the same church where hundreds of local Japanese Americans once gathered in 1942 to hear that they would be imprisoned following Japan's December 7th bombing of Pearl Harbor, a busload of former incarcerees, local Muslim Americans, friends, family, and community members will travel together 350 miles to the former Manzanar concentration clamp on a 3 day pilgrimage beginning Friday, April 26th at 8:30 am. WHAT: Manzanar Pilgrimage to Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp WHEN: April 26th at 8:30 AM WHERE: Buddhist Church of Florin at 7235 Pritchard Road, Sacramento, CA 57 diverse passengers will load and depart from the Buddhist Church of Florin at 7235 Pritchard Road, Sacramento just off Florin Road (between the intersections of Power Inn Road and the railroad tracks 2.4 miles east of Highway 99) Friday, April 26th between 8:30 am – 9:00am. The pilgrimage bus will return to the same site on Sunday, April 28th between 5-6 pm. Please call (916) 591-4236 Sunday after 2pm for approximate return time to the Buddhist Church of Florin. The large Buddhist Church of Florin is where local Japanese Americans gathered to hear the internment news in 1942. Of the 2,500 pre-WWII Florin residents, the government shipped about 600 to the Manzanar concentration camp, one of 10 that held 120,000 Japanese Americans from 1942 to 1945. Ironically, dozens of those local Japanese Americans who gathered in 1942 lived in the gymnasium after the war, having lost their homes to foreclosure. Since 9/11, the Japanese American and Muslim community have worked together to foster greater public understanding of Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asians unfairly scapegoated by ignorance and fear. As people this year commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1988 Japanese American redress bill signed by President Reagan, many pledge to never again allow such backlash or war hysteria to victimize other Americans in a time of crisis. This 8th annual Florin Manzanar Pilgrimage is sponsored by the Florin Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and the Council on American Islamic Relations – Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV). The departure site is used courtesy of the Buddhist Church of Florin. The Florin Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is one of the oldest and most active local community organizations involved in teaching cross-cultural understanding and promoting civil rights of all people. Established in 1935, the Florin JACL is run entirely by volunteers, and is sustained from community donations and membership dues. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. -

END – CONTACT: Florin-JACL Civil Rights Co-Chair Andy Noguchi, Tel: 916.591.4236, E-Mail: andynoguchi@sbcglobal.net; CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim Elkarra, Tel: 916.289.3748, E-Mail: belkarra@cair.com; CAIR-SV Chapter Coordinator Mohamed Ali, Tel: 916.524.3758, E-Mail: mohamed.ali@cair.com

Uploaded on Feb 26, 2010

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Thank you to Professor Saylor Heidmann of Albertus Magnus College for passing this on.

Fred Korematsu, a native of Oakland, Calif., made history at age 23 when he defied authorities who forced Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II. His case ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court while he was interned with his family at Topaz, the camp in west central Utah. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert will issue a proclamation on Friday designating Jan. 30 as Fred Korematsu Day. Photo courtesy of Karen Korematsu and the Korematsu Institute

Fred Korematsu lived under a cloud of suspicion as an internee at the Topaz internment camp in central Utah and when he left the camp to work in Salt Lake City during World War II.

But on Friday, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert will proclaim Jan. 30 as Fred Korematsu Day, honoring the man whose U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the internment of Japanese -Americans still stands as an example of racial injustice.

Korematsu would have been 94 on Jan. 30; he died eight years ago this spring.

The Salt Lake County Council on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting Herbert’s proclamation. Jani Iwamoto, who stepped down from the County Council earlier this month, advocated for both.

“He was an ordinary person who did something extraordinary,” Iwamoto told the council Tuesday. “Heroes like this are not necessarily big sports heroes or politicians. They’re ordinary individuals.”

Korematsu’s case had a lasting impact on basic rights, said Iwamoto, who knew Korematsu as a humble man who decades earlier resisted military orders that sent 120,000 Japanese-Americans living along the West Coast into internment camps.

“Fred just knew [internment] was wrong instinctively,” said Iwamoto, who first met Korematsu when she was a California law student who witnessed a 1980s effort to overturn his conviction. “He just wanted to live his life and be an American citizen.”

Korematsu was arrested for resisting the military order in spring 1942. A welder born in Oakland, he was just 23 when he was convicted and sent to the Tanforan assembly center in California and then on to Topaz in the desert northwest of Delta.

His reception in the camp was chilly, according to family members and friends who discussed it with him, said Ling Woo Liu, director of the Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education in California.

“It was a community totally under siege,” and it could be that people were wary of associating with him. “Everyone coped with the trauma very differently,” Liu said.

In any case, Korematsu had been confident he would prevail in court, and felt as if he had failed to vindicate his people, she said.

read more ……………..