‘Proof I was there’: every Japanese American incarcerated in second world war finally named

Mind boggling that this is the first time all the names have been gathered. Although seeing the difficulties we are having in our modern times getting the names of all the family members affected by the Trump administration's policy of ripping family's apart, this has become, unfortunately, more believable.

‘Proof I was there’: every Japanese American incarcerated in second world war finally named

The highlight of the exhibit is the Ireichō, a sacred book of names, a 25-pound, 1,000-page hand-bound book containing the names of the 125,284 people of Japanese descent – many of them American citizens – who were incarcerated in the United States during the second world war. Eighty years after the camps first opened, it’s the first comprehensive list of its kind.

“It did feel good to see my name in there,” Sahara said. “It was proof that I was there, and that this happened to me.”

The Ireichō project was led by Duncan Ryuken Williams, director of the University of Southern California’s Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture, and creative director Sunyoung Lee. Williams said he spent the past three years working with teams of volunteers across the country to undergo the painstaking process of researching, transcribing and verifying the names of those who were held at the 75 identified incarceration sites, including US army, Department of Justice, and War Relocation Authority camps. These sites opened in 1942 under President Franklin D Roosevelt, following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor.



They are asking survivors, or family members, to stamp their names, with the goal of having every single person who was incarcerated remembered by the living. Really powerful stuff.