Dr. Gail Y. Okawa, a granddaughter of a Japanese Christian minister from Hawai`i Island imprisoned in US internment camps during WWII, will introduce her 18-year book project, Remembering Our Grandfathers’ Exile:US Imprisonment of Hawai`i’s Japanese in World War II in an illustrated talk.

Like many descendants, she knew nothing about her maternal grandfather’s unjust imprisonment. In her presentation, she will share what she learned happened to Rev. Tamasaku Watanabe, arrested immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, and to the hundreds of Japanese immigrants (Issei) exiled with him from the Hawaiian Islands to internment camps run by the US Justice and War Departments in Louisiana, Montana, and New Mexico. Learn how the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, invoked against Hawai`i’s Issei in WWII, is being used again today to justify the arrest and detention of immigrants.

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