A Student's Guide to Organizing a Day of Remembrance

Monday, February 19th, 2024 marked 82 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066, which unjustly incarcerated over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. In the Japanese American community, the day is known as Day of Remembrance (DOR). It is a time for self-reflection, solidarity, and action. I’m embarrassed to say that prior to 2023, I had no idea DOR even existed. Even so, I was lucky to be a part of two DOR ceremonies this year, one for UC Berkeley, and one for the wider Bay Area. 

At UC Berkeley’s Nikkei Student Union, I’m one of the Community Service and Issues Committee co-chairs. Together with my co-chair, Elaina Lee, and our senior advisor, Lindsey Kojima, we organized the Day of Remembrance ceremony for Cal. It was definitely a hefty job, but the payoff was totally worth it. For the larger scale Bay Area DOR, I was asked to be one of their candle lighting emcees and invited to attend their planning meetings. I had an amazing time working with people from across the Bay Area Japanese American community to work on these events and hope that more people can create meaningful DOR ceremonies, too. If you’ve ever been interested in organizing a Day of Remembrance ceremony for your community, be it large or small, here is a beginner-friendly guide from a newbie who successfully participated in the organization of two this year.

1. Decide On A Theme

The first thing to consider for your DOR is a theme. Although not done by every DOR ceremony, a theme can help you push a larger, central message to your audience. The UC Berkeley DOR’s theme was reparations. We chose that to highlight that topic as a reminder of the reparations our community received after 40 years had passed and several incarcerees had already passed. The Bay Area chose the theme “Carrying the Light for Justice” and placed a focus on the genocide occurring in Palestine and why the Japanese American community should be involved. As you’ll see later, the themes that each DOR event chose tie closely to the rest of the program, so choosing a prominent theme can help give your DOR focus and centrality.

2. Invite Speakers

Having speakers adds a lot of depth to a DOR ceremony. Firstly, having one keynote speaker speak a little longer about the theme of your event can be a great way to draw in a larger audience and an amazing learning opportunity. At Cal, our keynote speaker was Donald Tamaki, known for his work on the landmark Korematsu Case. As part of the California Reparations Task Force, Don educated our audience on the struggle to gain reparations for Japanese Americans during the 20th century as well as the ongoing fight for black reparations currently happening in the United States. The Bay Area Keynote was Rev. Michael Yoshii, who gave a moving speech on seeking justice for those in Palestine. Both were amazing to hear, and I felt like I learned a lot more about how the struggles Japanese Americans have faced are connected to universal struggles that different groups experience.

In addition to our keynote speaker, Berkeley NSU also had speakers from three student organizations: OaxaCal, Muslim Student Association, and Bears for Palestine. We chose to include these student voices in order to shed light on other injustices different minority groups across campus were facing. Day of Remembrance is a day to remember the hardships we faced but also to uplift other communities and support them in their current battles against injustice. Having speakers that touch on your theme, current events, or just a topic you’re passionate about can add a great educational element to your ceremony as well as bring different communities together.

‍

3. Include a Candle Lighting Ceremony

The main event of every DOR event is the candle lighting ceremony. Typical candle lighting ceremonies have 11 candles, 10 of which represent the 10 War Relocation Authority Camps and one candle that represents the other 9 Department of Justice camps, including Crystal City, Texas where most of the Japanese Latin Americans were held. 

Each candle typically has a representative to light it and most of the time, the representative will be someone who was previously incarcerated or who has family who were incarcerated. However, that is not a criteria, and several ceremonies bring in non-Japanese community members who have contributed to the JA community.

At the Bay Area DOR, each candle lighter was introduced with a short bio and then lit their candle. At the UC Berkeley one, however, each candle lighter took the microphone and shared a story about the camp they were lighting for or about their family’s experience. Although it took much longer, I definitely enjoyed the latter way of performing the ceremony much more. It was inspiring to hear stories from families across different camps and see what struggles they faced as well as how they persevered.

4. Consider a Cultural Performance

Although not a requirement, having a cultural aspect to your ceremony can be a great touch. One of the most tragic parts of the mass Japanese/Japanese American incarceration was the loss of Japanese heritage and culture. People burned all their Japanese belongings in the hope that it would keep them away from harm and halt any association with the Japanese empire, and in the process, we lost a part of who we are. Now, Japanese people across the nation are taking steps to reclaim our lost culture. Including some sort of cultural aspect in your DOR ceremony can help uplift the community and remind participants to keep holding on to their Japanese heritage. The Berkeley NSU DOR hosted the Nikkei Choral Ensemble, who performed acapella Japanese songs for our audience, and the Bay Area ceremony featured the performance of traditional Okinawan songs. Both were amazing to hear!

‍

5. Incorporate a Relevant Call to Action

As I’ve said before, Day of Remembrance is not just a day for recognizing what the Japanese American community experienced, it is also a day to uplift and amplify the voices of other marginalized communities facing oppression and injustice. Whether or not it is tied to the theme of your ceremony, a Call to Action about current events is a great opportunity to shed light on meaningful situations and spread valuable information to a wide audience.

Although Day of Remembrance is a beautiful and educational day for our nation, it is unfortunate that Japanese Americans went through an atrocity that led to us having a day to remember injustice in the first place.

We commemorate Day of Remembrance to not only reflect on our community’s past experiences, but to ensure that the same mistakes will not be made in the future. In doing so, we strive to seek justice for all who have been impacted by discrimination and oppression. It’s important that we never forget the stories of the Japanese American community and equally important that we continue to uplift the voices of others.

I am incredibly grateful to UCB NSU and the Bay Area DOR committee for giving me the opportunity to help plan and participate in such beautiful and educational events. Even though these were my first two DORs, I am positive that they will not be my last. I encourage everyone to attend at least one DOR and consider organizing one for your community. The experience was so rewarding and I now feel closer to the UC Berkeley, Bay Area, and Japanese American communities than I have ever been. Furthermore, even outside of DOR, taking time to learn more about Japanese American history as well as how our struggles as JAs connects to other struggles currently being faced by different communities is always beneficial.