PR - 4/1/05

Press Release 4/1/05

Manzanar Committee Announces Program for 36th Annual Pilgrimage

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Manzanar Committee announced plans for this year’s 36th annual pilgrimage to be held on Saturday, April 30, 2005. Co-sponsored by the Manzanar 9/11 Committee, the theme is “Retrospection and Relevance: Commemorating the First Manzanar Pilgrimage and its Meaning for Today.”

Taiko drummers will open the program at 11:30 a.m. Featured speakers include Los Angeles Community College Board Trustee Warren Furutani, UCLA Muslim American student Yousef Tasjar and Manzanar Committee Chair Sue Kunitomi Embrey.

In the tradition begun by the Manzanar Committee to "Raise the Banner" and recognize the various internment camps, Minidoka internees will be honored this year, and Lisa Joe will sing in honor of her mother, the late Sue Okabe, "Songbird of Minidoka," and will also speak about her family’s experience living behind barbed wire. Minidoka was designated as a National Monument on January 17, 2001.

A roll call of all ten WRA camps will also be led by Corey Miyano, followed by an interfaith service led by Rev. Paul Nakamura of the Lutheran Oriental Church. The pilgrimage will conclude with a gathering for all to participate in traditional Japanese circle dances, to be led by Kerry Kunitomi Cababa, Colleen Kunitomi Miyano and Ruth Miyano Beadles.

During the day, there will also be an art activity for youth near the pilgrimage site sponsored by the Wall of America Foundation as well as an exhibit of works by renowned artist Henry Fukuhara at the Manzanar Interpretive Center.

The young adult/family discussion program, “Manzanar at Dusk” will also take place this year at the Manzanar Interpretive Center from 5-8 p.m.

The Manzanar Committee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that depends on community support to hold its yearly pilgrimages to the Manzanar National Historic Site, where approximately 10,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were held without due process during WWII. For more information, visit http://www.manzanarcommittee.org or call (323) 662-5102.