As part of its observance of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Pasadena Public Library presents Susan in a talk that celebrates the Japanese American community in Pasadena. Following the issuance of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, Japanese Americans in Pasadena, along with more than 125,000 other persons of Japanese ancestry, were forcibly removed from the west coast by the US military to desolate remote locations, where the US government imprisoned them for the duration of the war. As they were released from the detention camps at the war's end, they faced such intense opposition to returning to their homes that many Japanese neighborhoods which were vibrant before the war remained erased. Susan pays tribute to the civic leaders in Pasadena who pushed back against the intense prejudice that the Japanese Americans faced, and will discuss how their support paved the way for the Japanese American community to reconstitute in Pasadena and in other parts of Southern California.

Join her for this in-person event at the Lamanda Park Library.