A renowned Bay Area civil rights activist is set to be honored Sunday at an event to commemorate the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Yuri Kochiyama, 88, of Oakland is scheduled to receive the 2010 Clifford Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian Award at a ceremony in San Francisco’s Japantown.
The ceremony is part of the annual Bay Area Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the internment of Japanese Americans that was authorized Feb. 19, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
About 120,000 Japanese Americans from the west coast, including Kochiyama and her family, were incarcerated at camps in remote locations around the country. The U.S. government formally apologized for the internment in 1988, and has paid more than $1.6 billion in reparations to former internees and their heirs.
After the internment, Kochiyama devoted her life to ensure civil rights for blacks, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
The Day of Remembrance event begins at 2 p.m. at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post St. Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Long Beach, who authored a law that grants honorary degrees to former internees who were forced to quit school because of their incarceration, is the keynote speaker.
The Day of Remembrance also includes a candle-lighting ceremony and an interfaith procession from the theater to the Japanese Cultural and Community Center at 1840 Sutter St.
Tickets are $15 at the door. More information about the event can be found at http://www.dayofremembrance.org.
