Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II // The Traveling Smithsonian Exhibit at Park City Museum

“No payment can make up for those lost years. So, what is most important in this bill has less to do with prosperity than with honor. For here we admit a wrong: Here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.”

President Ronald Reagan

As he signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988

The traveling Smithsonian Exhibit at Park City Museum teaches a lesson about immigration, prejudice, civil rights, heroism and what it means to be an American that is as relevant now as it was 79 years ago.

The prejudice against Asian Americans did not begin in 1941, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halted the immigration of Chinese laborers and later the even broader Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 barred additional immigrants from entering the USA, made them ineligible for participation in the legal and political systems and prevented them from owning land.

These acts inhibited the first generation of Asian immigrants but they did not give up. Through hard work and perseverance they laid the foundation for the following generations, born in the US and entitled to all the rights due them as citizens.

On December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan bringing the USA into the war. Within 10 weeks, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 calling for all Japanese Nationals living in America and Japanese American citizens to be evacuated from their homes and businesses and incarcerated in various internment camps throughout the country, including one located at Topaz, UT.

By the end of 1942.... 75,000 American citizens and another 45,000 Japanese nationals living in America were incarcerated for up to 4 years.

This traveling exhibit tells the story through photos, testimonies, artifacts and touch screens. We see glimpses of individuals and families, what they left behind, how they spent up to 4 years within these centers and the aftermath of how this Executive Order impacted life for tens of thousands of citizens and their families.

The Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit will be at home in Park City Museum's Tozer Gallery from June 19 to October 4