Northern California Time of Remembrance (NCTOR) 2026

Presented by Florin, Lodi, Placer County and Sacramento JACL Chapters

Preserving History

Saturday, February 14, 2026, 1:00-3:00 P.M.
California Museum: 1020 O St. Sacramento, CA 95814

During a time when our country questions the value of history, what supports a country’s democracy is not only its accomplishments and achievements, but its willingness to acknowledge, apologize, and correct its mistakes both current and past. Please join us to learn and be inspired by the work of Densho and the Ireichō Project to preserve history.

Naomi Ostwald Kawamura is the Executive Director of Densho [www.densho.org], a Seattle-based nonprofit and digital archive that preserves and shares the history of Japanese American wartime incarceration to promote equity and justice today. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of British Columbia, where she teaches a course in museum practice. Her work with Japanese American and Japanese Canadian communities brings a comparative perspective to remembrance, redress, and reconciliation. Her current work examines how digital preservation and storytelling can confront historical erasure and strengthen democratic participation in an age of misinformation.

Duncan Ryuken Williams is the founder of the Ireichō Project [https://www.janm.org/exhibits/ireicho], the Alton Brooks Professor of Religion, and Director of the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at the University of Southern California. He has been ordained since 1993 as a Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition. He served as the Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. His most recent project is the building of the Irei Names Monument, a memorial to honor those of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in America’s internment and concentration camps during WWII.

Admission Prices

$15 General admission

Free admission for college students

Free for children 18 and under

The Puyallup Valley JACL’s Day of Remembrance event is Saturday, Feb 21st at the Expo Hall on the Washington State Fairgrounds from 10am – 12pm with doors opening at 9:45am.

The Day of Remembrance is a way to acknowledge and honor the over 125,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated during World War II.

Event Details

• Time - Doors open at 9:45am, Program Starts at 10:00am and ends around 12:00pm.

• Parking – Free parking is available in the Washington State Fair’s Gold Parking Lot, 350 7th Ave SE, Puyallup

• Free admission is at the Gold Gate, corner of S. Meridian & 9th Ave SW. Volunteers will guide you from the Gold parking lot through the Gold Gate entrance into the Expo Hall.

Program

This year’s program will include five sessions, featuring a fireside chat with survivors Hana Konishi and Paul Tomita; a reading by author Tamiko Nimura from her new book, A Place for What We Lose: A Daughter’s Return To Tule Lake; a display of paintings by artist Chris Hopkins that explore the incarceration experience; and updates from Tsuru for Solidarity by Stan Shikuma and his team on actions needed to support immigrant and refugee communities currently being targeted; guests will also be able to visit the Remembrance Gallery, led by Gallery docents.

The annual Los Angeles Day of Remembrance commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Executive Order 9066 authorized the US military to remove persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and set into motion their incarceration in concentration camps during World War II.

This year’s theme, “The Power of Action: Silence Today, Injustice Tomorrow,” highlights the current climate where our history, not only as Japanese Americans but as all communities of color, are under threat of erasure or censorship. The program will focus on taking collective action today to secure a better future for future generations and highlight the work that our community is doing and the work many of our partners are doing to support each other.

The 2026 Los Angeles Day of Remembrance is organized by: Go For Broke National Education Center, Japanese American Citizens League - Pacific Southwest District, Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo Service Center, Manzanar Committee, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, Nikkei Progressives, OCA - Greater Los Angeles

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts in honored to collaborate with the Japanese American Citizens League’s Mt. Olympus Chapter, and Plan-B Theatre, to commemorate Day of Remembrance, which recognizes the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order led to the unjust mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The day serves as a remembrance of this historical injustice and acts as a call to action to protect civil liberties today. 

Gather in the Dumke Auditorium at the UMFA for a reading of Plan-B Theatre’s KILO-WAT by Aaron Asano Swenson, (featuring Bryan Kido from the 2025 production), followed by a post-performance discussion featuring Hank Misaka & Nancy Umemura, the children of the central figure in KILO-WAT, Wat Misaka. Following the event, attendees are encouraged to explore the UMFA galleries and enjoy the art on view.  This event is free, and all are welcome to attend.