![[POSTPONED] Join the Pilgrimage to Close the Camps, June 5-7, Washington DC](https://couragetoresist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/no-more-camps.jpg)
UPDATE / March 27, 2020
Due to COVID-19, for health and safety reasons, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the June 5th-7th National Pilgrimage to Close the Camps in Washington, D.C. We also are postponing the Caravan to Close the Camps.
POSTPONED
Courage to Resist is a proud endorser of the National Pilgrimage to Close the Camps, “A chance to join thousands of Japanese Americans and other communities for programs, protest, and healing together.”
These events and actions are being lead by Tsuru for Solidarity, a nonviolent, direct-action project of Japanese American activists who are working to end detention sites and support immigrant and refugee communities who are being targeted by inhumane policies.
For more information:
tsuruforsolidarity.org/pilgrimage
Here are the events so far
Caravan to Close the Camps – last week of May, 2020 (exact dates coming soon)
Building on our mission statement to build solidarity among allied communities and to support the march and rally, a multi-community Caravan to Close the Camps with a focus on young activists and artists will depart from Little Tokyo, Los Angeles the last week of May (exact dates coming soon).
Congressional Education Visits, Friday, June 5
While we are in D.C., we will fly our tsuru to our representatives in Congress to educate them about the connections between our own World War II incarceration and present-day immigrant detention facilities and inhumane immigration policies. If you’re interested in participating in Congressional Education visits you should indicate your interest in your registration (participation is free).
Opening Ceremony & Solidarity Reception, Friday, June 5 & Saturday, June 6
On Friday and Saturday nights, we will be gathering for engaging evenings of speakers, performers, and community building. Friday evening includes refreshments and Saturday evening includes dinner. Registration for these events is required.
National Protest to Close the Camps, Saturday, June 6
The capstone of our program in D.C. is our protest rally and march. We will start at the Sylvan Theater at the base of the Washington Monument for a rally to lift up our voices to demand humane immigration policies and an end to immigrant detention practices. We will be led by hundreds of our survivors, along with representatives of frontline communities, on a march to Lafayette Square. From there, across the street from the White House, we will present 125,000 tsuru, representing those who were incarcerated during WWII and 80,000 mariposa, representing those who are currently in U.S. detention.
Healing Circles for Change, Saturday, June 6
Healing intergenerational trauma has become an embedded element of Tsuru work. In all of our work, we believe in bringing together indigenous, undocumented, Black, brown, Jewish, refugee, Arab/Muslim communities and more; communities that are in the shocks and aftershocks of violence, communities that have been historically pitted against one another to consolidate power.
“I would urge people to support Courage to Resist in whatever way they can. … As a veteran myself I know how difficult it is to break out of the stranglehold the military has on one’s mind…”
I grew up in Lodi, CA. There was a community of Japanese, mostly farmers. Given the thousands of deaths at Pearl Harbor on 12-7-1941, there was a lot of hatred and rage against Japanese in California. Also, we knew of the Japanese plan to invade California, and several Japanese spies were apprehended. To save the lives of Japanese in California, the camps were created. I have never met a single Japanese individual at the camps who was harmed at the camps. They were fed. While some Japanese left for the camps losing property, not so in Lodi, CA. My own grandfather took over the farms/homes of 5 Japanese families, paying all costs, farming what could be farmed and keeping the properties in good shape waiting for the return of the families. Until he died in 1956, a long line of Japanese came to his home every Xmas to give respect and thanks. He was not the only American to help the Japanese.
Why hasn’t Courage to Resist is allowing this comment justifying the incarceration of Japanese American go unchallenged? The historical scholarship shows that even J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI assessed that the Japanese American presence in the West Coast posed no threat to national security. No spy network was uncovered. No Japanese plan to invade California in 1941/1942 or thereafter. Pearl Harbor was a gamble to discourage the United States from entering the war in the Pacific; the US-Japanese war was a struggle to see who could control China. See Greg Robinson, _By the Order of the President_ and other such works on the JA incarceration.
Susan Lea’s presumption is that it’s okay for a U.S. citizen to be imprisoned without due process because the prisoners weren’t starved. What a horrible statement to make.
Happy you challenged it.