LA County Library’s Asian Pacific Resource Center (APRC) will be hosting Executive Order 9066: Stories of Japanese American Imprisonment on Wednesday, February 16 at 6 pm. Join us as speaker Sam Mihara recounts his wartime experiences, talks about why the camps were created and lessons learned, and sheds light on civil rights violations endured by the Japanese American community during World War II. For adults.

APRC has also compiled a list of books and documentary films to help children, teens, and adults learn more about the Japanese American experience during World War II and the lasting impact Executive Order 9066 had on the Japanese American community. There is also a blog post featuring these resources.

A few notes about the event and featured speaker, Sam Mihara:

LA County Library is proud to feature a virtual program on Wednesday, February 16 with Sam Mihara, speaker and subject of the book, Blindsided: The Life and Times of Sam Mihara, which chronicles Mihara’s life in a Japanese prison camp during World War II.  This year marks the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, a 1942 wartime order authorizing the forcible incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans, which included Mihara and his family, who were forced out of their home and moved to Heart Mountain, a desolate Wyoming prison camp. 

Mihara will share his childhood wartime experiences at Heart Mountain, discuss why Japanese prison camps were created and the lessons learned. His talk will also shed light on civil rights violations endured by the Japanese American Community during World War II. Following Mihara’s presentation, participants will have the opportunity to engage with Mihara in a live Q&A.

Today, Mihara is a national speaker on mass imprisonment and has presented on this topic at the United States Congress, the United States Department of Justice, the Smithsonian Institute, and Harvard Law School, among other governing bodies, institutions, and academic settings.  In 2018, Mihara received the Paul A. Gagnon Prize from the National Council for History Education.