Law Day Yosemite will recognize Japanese internment

At an event honoring the rule of law and equal rights in the United States, about 400 students will learn about a time when those principles failed to persist.

The fifth annual Law Day Yosemite event will take place at Half Dome Village in Yosemite Valley on Friday, April 28 – Fresno youth will be in attendance. The theme this year is the Japanese internment, which resulted in the incarceration of Japanese-Americans and Japanese immigrants from the West Coast in internment camps during World War II.

Eighth-grade students from about 10 elementary schools have written essays on the internments and they will be reviewed for understanding on the subject. At the event, three finalists will be selected and the winner’s essay will be read out loud.

The students will hear presentations from Judge A. Wallace Tashima, a senior judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Rev. Sabado Masada and his wife, Marion, both from Fresno.

The couple and the judge were all interned as children and travel across the country to address the internments.

Law Day Yosemite is sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the Federal Bar Association in conjunction with Yosemite Hospitality. The event is open to the public.

For more information, email Carol Moses at carol@yosemitelaywer.com or call 559-449-9069.

This story was originally published April 27, 2017 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Law Day Yosemite will recognize Japanese internment."