Japanese American Day of Remembrance

Mayor Charles Royer of Seattle, Washington, signs the proclamation for the Day of Remembrance, Nov. 1978, Seattle, Washington.. (2020, November 18). Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:14, February 21, 2026 from https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-p10-00015-1/.

February 19 marked the day in 1942 when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering the incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans. 

From the Densho Encyclopedia

The first Day of Remembrance was held in Seattle on November 25, 1978, over the Thanksgiving weekend. Volunteers re-enacted the removal of the Seattle Japanese American community to the Puyallup Assembly Center. The idea to stage a Day of Remembrance was in response to the stalled redress movement at the time.

Award-winning playwright Frank Chin came up with the idea in hopes of revitalizing the movement. Mayumi Tsutakawa, daughter of famed sculpturist George Tsutakawa, is credited with coming up with the expression, "Day of Remembrance," for the program. 

Since the group had to pull the event together in a few weeks, the volunteer organizers put in 10 to 14 hour days, and Frank Abe even quit his job to devote his full time to the program. Frank Fujii created the "ichi-ni-san" barbed wire symbol that became the DOR's logo.

Posters resembled the original wartime "Instructions To All Persons of Japanese Ancestry" posters and were nailed to telephone poles just as they had been done during the war. Organizers also produced replicas of family name tags to give to attendees. 

On the day of the event, Seattle participants were to gather at a vacant lot next to the old Seattle Pilots baseball park and caravan to Puyallup, while those from other cities such as Tacoma were to head directly to Puyallup. 

Organizers were stunned to get more than 2,200 people come out to register at the vacant lot. The caravan to Puyallup stretched for over four miles down Interstate 5. Another estimated 1,000 people showed up directly at Puyallup. The event was picked up by the mainstream and ethnic media nationwide.

The second DOR was held in Portland, after Portland Japanese American Citizens League President Jim Tsujimura enlisted Chin's help in organizing something similar in Portland. The date was moved to around February 19 to observe the anniversary date of the signing of E.O. 9066.