Courage & Compassion: Our Shared Story of the WWII Japanese American Experience

Courage & Compassion: Our Shared Story of the WWII Japanese American Experience

Dr. Nikki Nojima Louis presents stories from both inside and outside of the barbed wire of the prison camps of America that imprisoned more than 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry during WWII. With knowledge gleaned from personal experience, memories of elders, and extensive research into oral histories and historical records, she has created a memorable experience through slides and stories that enables audiences to inhabit the history of a fraught era.

"Courage and Compassion" is the story of Japanese immigrants who pursued the American dream and of their pride in their American-born children. It relates how, after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, immigrant families were herded into prison camps in desolate areas of the United States and how many of their sons and daughter served in the American military, even while their families remained in behind barbed wire. It is also the story of courageous and compassionate friends, neighbors, and strangers who held out helping hands to Japanese Americans at a time of war hysteria and intense racial hatred.

Presenter Nikki Nojima Louis is a childhood survivor of the WWII American prison camps. Her father was held in Santa Fe and Lordsburg internment camps from 1942 to 1946. She and her readers theater group, JACL Players, have presented "Living History" plays throughout New Mexico since 2014.

This program is sponsored by New Mexico Humanities Council.