'The neighbors we needed during World War II.' Japanese Americans protest Seattle area deportation flights
Japanese American community members and immigration advocates gathered at Boeing Field Tuesday to call for an end to deportation flights out of King County International Airport.
Their call was part of a series of actions in honor of the Day of Remembrance and the 82nd anniversary of World War II.
According to La Resistencia, an immigration advocacy group, more than 1,000 people have been placed on deportation flights out of King County International Airport since last May.
La Resistencia, along with Tsuru for Solidarity, a Japanese American advocacy group, also called for Tacoma's Northwest Detention Center, to be shut down.
Advocates pointed to the historical context guiding their current efforts.
"There's an intersectional history here of forced removals, of mass incarcerations, of separation of families, of deportations, and of state violence in many different forms towards immigrants, Indigenous people, and communities of color," said Michael Ishii, an organizer with Tsuru for Solidarity.
For Ishii, there are also personal stakes involved.
"In 1942, when my mother who was 10 years old, she was sent to the Puyallup Fairgrounds for incarceration, and then on to the Minidoka concentration camp. Nobody went into the streets," he said. "It's very important for us as Japanese Americans to hold the ethos that we will be the neighbors and the citizens that we needed to take action during World War II, when the country disappeared us from our homes."
RELATED: 'History is being repeated.' Japanese Americans call for Northwest Detention Center's end
Tsuru for Solidarity started in 2019 as a protest movement to prevent a detention center being built at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, a site that has a history of trauma.
Fort Sill was first established as a Quaker boarding school in 1871 which separated Native American children from their families and attempted to erase their cultural identities, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
The site later became a prisoner-of-war camp for Chiricahua members of the Apache tribe.
During World War II, more than 700 Japanese Americans, including more than 90 Buddhist priests, were incarcerated at the military base. One Japanese immigrant and father, Kanesaburo Oshima, was shot and killed while trying to escape.
"Even in their death, their grave sites are surrounded by chains," Ishii said.
He added that he's calling on members of the local community to take action now.
"Speaking out is part of healing our multi-generation trauma from the mass incarceration," Ishii said. "It's important for us to reframe that narrative. It needs a different ending for us and for all people in the future."
Correction notice, Friday, Feb. 23 at 8:57 a.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that there was a partnership between the King County International Airport and the Northwest Detention Center.
