Tonight, we reflect on the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066. Issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this order forcibly removed 110,000 people of Japanese descent from the west coast to inland detention centers.

We talk with the organizers of San Francisco’s Day of Remembrance. This annual event commemorates the fragility of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. Japanese Americans unite with today’s targeted communities to fight against all forms of hate-based scapegoating. 

We speak with Stan Yogi, the co-author of a new children’s book about civil rights leader and internment resistor Fred Korematsu called Fred Korematsu Speaks Up.

And Actor Greg Watanabe joins us. He’s an actor in the Broadway musical Allegiance based on George Takei’s experience in the camps. You can see the musical in movie theaters across North American this Sunday!

We dedicate tonight’s show to Manong Al Robles. Uncle Al grew up in San Francisco’s Japantown. He regularly made the Tule Lake pilgrimage to the former incarceration camp for Japanese Americans. Manong Al dedicated his life to social justice and bringing voice to silenced communities through poetry. Although he passed away in 2009, his words live on as Manong Al was Manilatown’s unofficial poet laureate. Throughout tonight’s show, we’ll hear clips about Uncle Al’s life because today is his birthday!

The Manilatown Heritage Foundation commemorate Uncle Al’s birthday tomorrow at their weekly Friday evening family-friendly gathering. The night features poetry readings by Tony Robles, Kim Shuck, Leon Sun, Pete Yamamoto, and Luke Caipe and visual art by Leon Sun and Chris Fujimoto. 

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