Torrance raising funds for Japanese American memorial wall
The city of Torrance is hosting a fundraiser Wednesday night for a proposed Japanese American memorial wall, which is to honor those who were forced from their homes about 80 years ago and held in wartime camps across the United States.
Black granite walls engraved with over 150,000 names of interned Japanese Americans will comprise the WWII Camp Wall at Columbia Park, the nation's first such memorial.
The project's visionary is the late Kanji Sahara, whose family was incarcerated at a Santa Anita camp. His name will be on one of the 10 walls of the memorial – each wall represents a World War II War Relocation Authority camp.
Nancy Hayata now leads the WWII Camp Wall project following the death of Sahara. She said the wall will run along a Prairie Avenue pathway in the park. "So you can't miss it from the street," she said. "They'll be lit up at night. It'll look like a big, long piece of artwork."
Another Southern Californian name on the wall will be that of actor George Takei, who starred in the Star Trek series. Speaking in a documentary done by Torrance high school students, he said he was 5 years old when soldiers with rifles led his family away.
"They came to the front door and began banging on it. One of those two soldiers, when my father answered the door, pointed the bayonet at my father," Takei said in the documentary.
Japanese Americans were sent to 10 internment camps across the nation after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a removal order following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Loved ones were separated, some became ill, and many lost their property and everything they owned.
The wall is projected to cost about $10 million. So far, $5 million has been secured for its construction, and Wednesday night's fundraiser at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center is to help the project get closer to completion.
The 7 p.m. fundraiser features a concert by the Hiroshima Trio, followed by some live auction items and a dance after-party.