The following is a statement by Satsuki Ina, co-leader of Tsuru for Solidarity.
“The Trump Administration announced new regulations…that would remove the Flores settlement’s protections for child welfare, permitting indefinite detention of migrant children and families with minimal oversight,” said Satsuki Ina, co-leader of Tsuru for Solidarity. “The administration claims that stripping away the current legal protections for children is ‘an urgent humanitarian necessity’ that would ‘protect these children from abuse.’”
“This is Orwellian and wrong,” added Ina. “As Japanese American survivors and descendants of U.S. concentration camps, we know that imprisoning parents and children causes deep harm that is passed down from generation to generation. We will not stand by quietly as this administration seeks to inflict the pain on others that our community suffered in World War II.”
Ina was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, a maximum security concentration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. She is the Co-leader of Tsuru for Solidarity, and has a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in the treatment of community trauma. She is also the producer of the documentary film, From A Silk Cocoon, and for being one of those featured in the film, And Then They Came for Us.
Tsuru for Solidarity is a non-violent, direct action project of Japanese American social justice advocates working to end detention sites and support front-line immigrant and refugee communities that are experiencing injustice and oppression. We stand on the moral authority of Japanese Americans who suffered the atrocities and legacy of U.S. concentration camps during World War II.
Never Again is NOW. Our mission is to:
- Close all U.S. concentration camps;
- Build solidarity with other communities that have experienced forced removal, detention, deportation
and separation of families. - Facilitate intergenerational, cross-community healing from the trauma of our histories.
Call to Action
Join us in Washington, D.C. in May 2020 for a “National Pilgrimage to Close the Camps” (date to be confirmed shortly). Ancient Japanese legend says that those who fold one thousand paper cranes will be granted their heart’s desire. We ask all to join us, to fold 125,000 paper cranes, one for each Japanese American and Japanese Latin American who was incarcerated in American concentration camps during World War II. Representing wings of hope, we will bring them to a historic gathering of Japanese Americans and allies, to hang the tsuru, beat our drums, and raise our voices in SOLIDARITY with immigrants and all people of color who have been imprisoned by hatred and fear in our country. We are planning the largest gathering of Japanese Americans since WWII and together we will demand an end to TODAY’S AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
Contact Us
Sign up for updates on our web site: http://www.tsuruforsolidarity.org. Email: tsuruforsolidarity@gmail.com; Instagram: @tsuruforsolidarity; Twitter: @tsurusolidarity; Facebook: TsuruForSolidarity.
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LEAD PHOTO: Satsuki Ina was the keynote speaker at the 46th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, April 25, 2015, at the Manzanar National Historic Site. Photo: Gann Matsuda/Manzanar Committee.
Manzanar Committee 
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