Touchstones Nelson is partnering with Selkirk College and the Mir Centre for Peace to present a free community event about the Japanese-Canadian Internment experience during World War II. This free community event will take place this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Mir Centre for Peace at Selkirk College.
The event will begin with a brief talk by 90-year-old Aya Hagashi, who will share her story of internment at the camp in Kaslo. This will be followed by a screening of The War Between Us, an award-winning feature-length drama about the Kawashima family’s internment camp experiences and their relationships with the local community.
This event coincides with the current exhibition at Touchstones entitled “Two Views” which presents photographs by Ansel Adams and the great British Columbia photographer, Leonard Frank, of internment camps in California and British Columbia. The exhibition also includes a collection of short films about the internment experience created by students of Lucerne School in New Denver and two professional filmmakers. The exhibition runs until Friday February 3.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, both the Canadian and American governments forced the relocation of citizens of Japanese ancestry from the coastal regions. Nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans and 22,000 Japanese Canadians were affected. This extreme response was the culmination of years of anti-Asian racism in western North America.
After the war, community members spent years fighting for redress and building educational awareness. In 1988, both the US Congress and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney apologized on behalf of their nations for the injustices suffered by persons of Japanese descent.
All are welcome to attend this free event. For more information call Jessica Demers 250-352-9813 ext. 275.