(New York City) Day of Remembrance: Story of Seabrook, NJ February 23, 2008

All are welcome to join us as we explore the unique and diverse history and impact of this important space in our community. Our program will feature an interactive panel discussion including speakers: John Fuyuume, Setsuko Fuyuume, and Satoru Tsufura who will talk about their experience and share their knowledge of Seabrook, a multi-media presentation and music by fue player Kazumi Ose.

When: Saturday, February 23rd, from 1-4pm
Where: Japanese American United Church,
255 Seventh Avenue (between 24th and 25th Streets)

"Gentlemen, what have you to lose? You are not making any progress by remaining in camp--I say come out [to Seabrook Farms] and see it for yourself. We'll pay your transportation . . . " - Employment manager from Seabrook Farms in New Jersey spoken at the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas in mid-April, 1944.

At the end of World War II, Japanese Americans began to leave the concentration camps. There was a call to come work at a frozen food processing plant in Seabrook, New Jersey. Little did they know that in this small rural farm town, they would be entering a global community that would be their portal to America and the world.

At this special Day of Remembrance event, we will hear former residents of Seabrook share about their experience and the challenges of being West Coast Japanese Americans re-creating their disrupted lives and forming a new community on the East Coast. They dealt with many challenges, confronted lingering prejudice, and determinedly honored the rituals and customs of their Japanese heritage. As adults toiled under difficult conditions alongside Japanese Latin American, European, South American, African Americans and Appalachian workers, their children experienced a unique and extraordinary multicultural education. It was a company and community so unusual that it was featured in LIFE magazine. This Day of Remembrance will illuminate how Seabrook has evolved to present day and has contributed to the history and identity of all Japanese Americans.

The program will also include the screening of "The New Neighbors" a short propaganda film by the US State Department about a Japanese American family in Seabrook that was shown during the post-war Occupation in Japan to promote the image of American society and treatment of Japanese Americans to the Japanese. Introduced by Mary Lui, Associate Professor of American Studies and History at Yale University.

Join us for an afternoon of stories about this resilient and colorful Japanese American community during an extraordinary era.

We will also candlelight ceremony, to gather together to remember the internment and incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII.

All are encouraged to bring a dish or a dessert for the potluck!

$10.00 suggested donation

For more information, please contact Tsuya Yee at [email protected]

The New York Day of Remembrance Program is co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, The New York chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, and The Japanese American National Museum

The program is organized by the New York Day of Remembrance Committee

If you would like to see more information on Seabrook please see here:

The Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center gives a shorter synopsis of the history: http://www.co.cumberland.nj.us/tourism/seabrook_museum/
A full New Yorker article about Seabrook here: http://www.levity.com/seabrook/spinach.html