Japanese American WWII detainees honored in book that lists every name

Monument to 'console spirits' pieces together fragmented records to preserve history

20240812N Hisae Shima

Hisae Shima Batchelder, center, stamps her own name in the Ireicho, a book filled with the names of Japanese American wartime detainees. (Photo by Rei Nakafuji)

REI NAKAFUJI, Nikkei staff writer

LOS ANGELS -- Hisae Shima does not remember much about life at a Japanese American incarceration camp nearly 80 years ago, but wants to make sure hers and her parents' names are recorded as part of this painful chapter in U.S. history.

And so, Shima, 82, recently travelled to the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), to look through a commemorative book that lists the names of more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent incarcerated in U.S. camps during World War II. The book, on display until December, is part of a project meant to preserve their little-told stories.

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