November 25, 1978
The first "Day of Remembrance" event is held at Camp Harmony, the Puyallup, Washington Assembly Center.
The first Day of Remembrance was held at Camp Harmony. The event was organized by Frank Chin, author /playwright, Frank Abe, filmmaker, and by the Seattle Evacuation Redress Committee, in part to bring national attention to the redress movement. More than 2,000 people from the northwest attended the event--a "pot luck"--to remember their past. Prior to the event, Henry Miyatake approached Mike Lowery, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from the Seventh Congressional District of Washington, to ask for his support of a bill for Japanese American redress. Lowery agreed, and when he was elected, he introduced H.R. 5977, which called for $15,000 plus $15 per day of incarceration. This concept of seeking monetary redress through the legislative process ran counter to the National JACL's support for a bill calling for an investigative commission. Lowery's bill did not pass in committee. Meanwhile, H.R. 5499--supported by Matsui, Mineta, Inoyue and Matsunaga--passed out of committee and was ratified by Congress. The bill, signed by President Jimmy Carter on July 30, 1980, created the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC).
