LOS ANGELES — On March 28, the Manzanar Committee announced that attorney Don Tamaki will be the keynote speaker at the 55th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, which will be held at the Manzanar National Historic Site on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at 12:00 PM PDT (see map below).
Tamaki, Senior Counsel of the Bay Area law firm, Minami Tamaki LLP, is best-known as Co-Counsel for Fred Korematsu during his Coram Nobis court case in which he appealed his 1944 conviction for violating the order that forcibly removed Japanese/Japanese American from the West Coast and incarcerated them in American concentration camps and other confinement sites. Tamaki helped lead a successful effort to get Korematsu’s conviction vacated in U.S.District Court in 1984.
Tamaki also co-founded the Asian Law Alliance in San Jose, and has served as the Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.
In 2012-13, he co-represented the California State Bar in its successful petition to the California Supreme Court to admit the first undocumented immigrant to the State Bar, Sergio Garcia. Other states have followed this ground-breaking decision, including Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming.
Tamaki also co-founded Stop Repeating History, to educate the public on the dangers of unchecked presidential power, drawing parallels between the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the Trump administration’s policies targeting minority groups based on race or religion.
In 2021, Tamaki was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to serve on the nine-member California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation
Proposals for African Americans to study the cumulative historic and present-day impact of 246 years of enslavement, 90 years of Jim Crow oppression, and 60 years of segregation and its vestiges, and to recommend to the Legislature what California should do to address these harms.
“We’re honored to have Don Tamaki as our keynote speaker on this 55th anniversary of the first community-wide Pilgrimage,” said Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey. “Don’s tireless activism over the years, his leading role in the coram nobis cases, and most recently, his role on the California .Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans makes him uniquely qualified to speak at our Pilgrimage.”
Embrey also emphasized the importance of the Manzanar Pilgrimage.
“As our country grapples with many of the same social and political issues that led to the forced removal and incarceration of our families, we need to remember the sacrifices our families made to hold America accountable,” he said. “We cannot gloss over or look the other way when others are scapegoated, vilified and attacked, solely because they choose to seek a better life here. We cannot turn away when people are attacked for how they worship, where they come from or because of racism and xenophobia. Our successful struggle for redress and reparations would be a hollow victory if our community doesn’t stand up to hate, doesn’t stand up to attacks on our basic democratic rights and doesn’t fight to defend our democratic rights.”
“Thousands of us have journeyed to Manzanar to pay our respects to those who lived behind barbed wire and to remind America that the basic freedoms and rights enshrined in our constitution must be defended, especially in times of crisis,” he added. “This is why we return to Manzanar year after year. We must remember so that America does not forget.”
For the daytime Pilgrimage program, cultural performances will begin at 11:30 AM featuring UCLA Kyodo Taiko, while the main portion of the program begins at 12:00 PM.
The Committee also announced that a bus to the Pilgrimage from Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo is available, but seats are going fast.
The bus will also take participants to the Visitor Center at the Manzanar National Historic Site following the Pilgrimage afternoon program. The buses will return to Southern California that evening.
Reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Complimentary fares are available for those who were incarcerated at any of the former American concentration camps or other confinement sites during World War II.
Anyone wishing to attend the Manzanar At Dusk program that evening should make other transportation arrangements.
To reserve seats on the Little Tokyo bus, call (323) 662-5102, or go to:
https://manzanarcommittee.org/55-bus.
The 2024 Manzanar At Dusk program, will follow the afternoon Pilgrimage program at 5:00 PM PDT, at Lone Pine High School gymnasium, located in Lone Pine, California, approximately eight miles south of the Manzanar National Historic Site (see map below).
Now in its 26th year, Manzanar At Dusk is co-sponsored by the Nikkei Student Unions at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, California State University (CSU), Fullerton CSU, Long Beach, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, San Diego.
Further details about the 55th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage and the 2024 Manzanar At Dusk program will be announced at a later date.
Both the Manzanar Pilgrimage and the Manzanar At Dusk program are free and open to the public. For more information, call (323) 662-5102, or send e-mail to info@manzanarcommittee.org.
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LEAD PHOTO: Don Tamaki. Used with permission.
Manzanar National Historic Site via Google Maps
Lone Pine High School via Google Maps
The Manzanar Committee, sponsor of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage and Manzanar At Dusk program, the youth education project, Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive, and the Sue Kunitomi Student Awards Program, is dedicated to educating and raising public awareness about the incarceration and violation of civil rights of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II and to the continuing struggle of all peoples when Constitutional rights are in danger. A non-profit organization that has sponsored the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969, along with other educational programs, the Manzanar Committee has also played a key role in the establishment and continued development of the Manzanar National Historic Site. For more information, check out our web site at https://manzanarcommittee.org, call us at (323) 662-5102, or e-mail us at info@manzanarcommittee.org. You can also follow the Manzanar Committee on Facebook, , on Instagram at @manzanarcommittee, and on YouTube.
Manzanar Committee 