🧵Eighty years ago today, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, setting in motion the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during WWII. Three of those 120,000 were Min Imamura, Chiyoko Omachi, and Kaz Ideno. #DayofRemembrance uprooted.jasc-chicago.org
Min, Chiyoko, and Kaz were uprooted from their homes in California and imprisoned in camps located in remote deserts and swamps. Armed guards, watch towers, and barbed wire surrounded them. 
During the war years, the government banned Japanese Americans from returning home to the West Coast. Instead, they were instructed to resettle across the Midwest and East Coast. Min, Chiyoko, and Kazuo were part of a wave of 20,000 Japanese Americans who ended up in Chicago.
The stories of people like Min, Chiyoko, and Kaz are ones I wish I'd had in my history textbooks, so I spent the past year producing a new web curriculum called "Uprooted" in partnership w/ @myJASC, @CJAHSToday, @EmmaSLincoln, @pauliebe, and Cori Nakamura Lin.
In "Uprooted," you can follow each Japanese American family from the West Coast to Chicago, ask them questions along the way, and trace the effects of incarceration on their kids and grandkids. uprooted.jasc-chicago.org
Thanks to all who helped me along the way with edits, insights, and moral support, including @AlexandraSalomo, @MatsumotoJason, @SeppukuFilm, and @matthewyzhou. Thanks also to the Ideno, Omachi, and Imamura families who made this all possible! 🌸❤️
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