New York Day of Remembrance

04/01/2026

Please join us for our annual Day of Remembrance Program which will be held this year in the historic New York Buddhist Church at 331 Riverside Drive. Please note the time change: 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm.

We are looking forward to gathering together to remember, reflect, and learn in community next month. Space is limited so please RSVP to secure a seat. We are also offering a Zoom option! The link to RSVP and donate can be found on our website.

This year’s program will feature a panel discussion with Lorraine Bannai (legal team Fred Korematsu case), Kathryn Bannai (lead counsel Gordon Hirabayashi case 1982-1985), and Peggy Nagae (lead counsel Minoru Yasui case) —women lawyers in the coram nobis cases that overturned the wartime convictions of three Japanese Americans who resisted incarceration. Their work fundamentally reshaped the legal and historical understanding of the Supreme Court’s infamous decisions that upheld the government’s wartime actions, revealing suppressed evidence and restoring justice decades later (full speaker bios can be found on our website).

This panel is especially timely in light of renewed national debates about civil liberties, executive power, racial profiling, and will also touch on concerns about the resilience of democratic institutions. At a moment when questions about governmental overreach and constitutional accountability are once again front and center, hearing directly from the attorneys who successfully challenged these Supreme Court rulings, offers powerful historical perspective and contemporary urgency.

Moderated by Dr. Satsuki Ina, whose own family was incarcerated during World War II, the discussion bridges legal advocacy with lived experience and intergenerational memory and healing. The panel’s relevance is further underscored by the recent feature of Dr. Ina and Lorraine Bannai on Rachel Maddow’s Burn Order podcast, which has brought renewed national attention to the lessons of this history for our present moment.

Following the panel discussion, Dr. Ina will do a special reading from her book, The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest. Books will be available for sale and signing.

11/03/2025

Ready For Company and Other Family Tales: a one-woman play about family and legacy. An inheritance of stories and unfinished quests from this Jewish-Japanese-American family tree. by Kim Ima

With a complicated family history, Kim excavates meaning from small remembered moments, inherited souvenirs, the oft-repeated family tales (as well silent secrets) left for her to unpack. Told with music, movement and “show-and-tell” objects, this one-woman journey of nostalgia and discovery portrays with humor the beautiful and enigmatic paths of immigration – and what we choose to carry forward.

Presented by La MaMa from November 6th-23rd. Refreshments will be served!

https://www.lamama.org/ready-for-company/ || https://www.kim-ima.com/

03/05/2025

This past Saturday, our community came together at the Japanese American United Church for our annual Day of Remembrance program. Our theme this year was ‘Remembrance into Action’, and we drew parallels between the dark history of Japanese American wartime incarceration to the plans for mass detention of undocumented immigrants. We called on all Japanese American New Yorkers to fight against this repetition of history by supporting the New York For All Act and to demand the closure of a new detention site in Newark, New Jersey.

We also honored Teddy Yoshikawa and Tomie Arai, two early members of the Basement Workshop, an Asian American arts and activist collective based in New York in the 1970s. Teddy and Tomie shared stories of Basement Workshop’s work organizing around a multiethnic Asian American political identity, and how we should see ourselves in the many struggles happening today, from abolition to the fight for a free Palestine.

If you are interested in getting involved in our year-round organizing, reach out! It’s going to take all of us to

Much appreciation to the Japanese American United Church for hosting us and the Japanese American Young Professional Association for volunteering with us!
📷:

02/01/2025

New York Day of Remembrance 2025 | March 1, 2025 1pm ET |
Japanese American United Church, 255 7th Avenue, NYC (In-person)

RSVP in our bio
📷 : Corky Lee
🎨 : Lauren Sumida

Please join us on Saturday, March 1st, 2025 in honoring our families and communities with this year’s Day of Remembrance program on channeling remembrance into action.

Each year, we acknowledge the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942, when the U.S. government ordered the forced removal and incarceration of over 125,000 Japanese Americans. America’s racist, white supremacist leadership spread narratives rooted in fear and hatred, invoking national security to target and criminalize the Japanese American community.

In addition to our mass incarceration experiences and histories on the west coast, we remember the New York Japanese American community members who endured escalated surveillance and policing in New York City. Within 24 hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mayor La Guardia ordered house arrest and detention for Japanese New Yorkers. By the end of 1941, nearly 300 Japanese immigrants had been rounded up and imprisoned at Ellis Island. Many others were deported or put under house arrest.

Our community’s WWII chapter of surveillance, incarceration, and deportation is one of the blueprints for today’s intensifying attacks on immigrant communities. We hold this history as a call to fight against these cycles of violence.

Join us Saturday, March 1st to remember, reflect, and learn more about ways to plug into community resistance, supports, and resources for directly impacted communities.

Please RSVP at the link in our bio!

This event is organized by the New York Day of Remembrance Committee

01/29/2024

Please save the date for our annual New York Day of Remembrance program on Saturday, March 2, 2024. We will be holding this in-person program from 1:00pm to 4:00 pm ET.

This year, we will learn more about the stories that make up the Japanese American community’s vast roots within New York with a special presentation from the New York Japanese American Oral History Project (NYJAOHP). These powerful stories keep our collective history alive and help us connect the past, present, and future.

We are looking forward to returning to our traditional in-person candle lighting memorial service and community potluck.

Please visit our website to RSVP. More details on the program will be sent soon. We look forward to seeing you there! https://www.dayofremembrancenyc.org/annualdorprogram

10/29/2023

CEASEFIRE NOW in Gaza.

From : We are not helpless in this moment. We need everyone to TAKE ACTION.

☎️ CALL ON CONGRESS
📱 TEXT A FRIEND
🪧 FIND A PROTEST
🗣️ SHARE THE CALL TOOL

The people of Gaza have a number one demand: KEEP UP THE PRESSURE & CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE NOW.

Use your power and influence to hold our U.S. government accountable.



First slide 🎨:

10/23/2023

Call Governor Hochul and demand that she sign the bill to establish a New York State Commission on Reparations Remedies ☎️ for the Japanese American community establishing a commission was a step towards winning redress. Stand with Black communities in New York and urge the governor to sign the bill now!

06/12/2023

Posted • 🌟The NYC Tanabata Festival returns on Saturday, July 8!!🎋

Come join this summertime tradition in , complete with dancing, , storyboard telling of the star-crossed lovers, writing paper wishes on bamboo branches and lessons. Plus a twist - stargazing through to learn about constellations.

Co-organized by JAA and , this'll be the 's 8th year, thanks to the participation of the , , , Bon-Dan NYC, and assistance from .

Come to the in or mild-mannered , bring , and see all details on this evening event below!

Thank you, , for the beautiful artwork!!

01/27/2023

New York Day of Remembrance 2023 | February 18, 2023 1pm ET | Virtual
Please save the date for our annual New York Day of Remembrance program on Saturday, February 18, 2023. We will be holding a virtual program from 1:00pm to 2:30pm EST.

We hope you will join us in honoring our families and communities with a program focused on the legacy of our past and how it connects to the present. Please click the RSVP link below to register. More details, including registration link will be sent next week!

This virtual event is organized by the New York Day of Remembrance Committee

Please save the date for our annual New York Day of Remembrance program on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

12/09/2022

Posted • Join the NP/NCRR Reparations Committee and the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition for a holiday gathering on December 13. The two groups are cosponsoring a virtual film screening of "A Vanished Dream: Wartime Story of My Japanese Grandfather" at 5:00 PM PST/8:00 PM EST and conversation with photojournalist Regina H. Boone at 6:00 PM PST/9:00 PM EST which will be moderated by Emily Akpan , co-chair of the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition. You can view the film at any time and simply join the conversation, but we hope that many of us can view the film together. RSVP at the link in our bio

09/09/2022

We celebrate the release of Katie Yamasaki’s newest book: Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfathers’ American Journey. This book celebrates the life of her grandfather, the acclaimed Japanese American architect Minoru Yamasaki.

On October 1, at 1pm, join Katie Yamasaki at the Brooklyn Public Library, Dweck Auditorium. She will be sharing the book and all that surrounds it, and there will be art-making activities for guests of all ages. Also, all of the original art from the book will be on display at the library in the children’s wing in an exhibit that will be up from September 12-January 6.

Greenlight Bookstore will be on hand to sell copies of the book and the author will be happy to sign them. Link to order the book is in our bio.

We hope to see you there!

06/21/2022

Please visit emergingradiance.co to learn more!

Posted • We’re very pleased to present our ever-growing community art installation, Emerging Radiance, Immersive. This multimedia project connects attendees with the stories of Nikkei farmers – personal and universal stories, bridging past and present.

Sunday, we had a reception for special guests. Executive Director of and E.R. Creative Director, .ikeda led the tour for local community members. Survivors of American concentration camps attended, including Theodora “Teddy” Yoshikami, who was born at Tule Lake. Her family opted to leave camp and work at Seabrook Farm in N.J. Teddy teaches taiko to youth at the NY Buddhist Church, and her signature performance move is to cartwheel on stage.

Takeshi (Tak) Furumoto is a Vietnam veteran on a mission to bring to life the contributions of Japanese American veterans in the New York area. Tak is involved with the Digital Museum of History of Japanese in New York. Like Teddy, Tak was born in Tule Lake, and he introduced his wife Carolyn, whom he calls, “Boss,” and shared that her parents were married at Tule Lake. Tak also brought a book of family photos and stories that his sister and brother-in-law meticulously compiled.

Sasha Hohri worked alongside Yuri Kochiyama, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, Michi Weglyn and others to organize incarceration survivor testimonies for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in the Redress movement.

Additional guests included Tsuya Hohri Yee, organizer for Day of Remembrance, New York, educator Miyo Tubridy, and  narrative strategist and social entrepreneur.

We are honored to share these American stories of resilience, in partnership with .justice