The little known story of the forced deportation was brought to the Day of Remembrance committee by Tom Hayashi, a DOR committee member.  Tom had been a life-long community activist and member of NCRR and JACL.  Many committee members did not know about this travesty of human and constitutional rights.  The government had used immigrants as scapegoats for the economic hardships brought by the Depression.  The committee was immediately struck with the similarities to the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The author of A Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, Professor Francisco Balderrama was invited to present the keynote address and speak about this period of history that devastated the lives of so many Mexican Americans.  Many of the deportees did not return to the United States even though they had left families behind.

The theme of the Day of Remembrance, Claiming History – Justice Along Color Lines, was selected to frame the discussion of the U.S. government’s treatment of immigrants and communities of color and the important legacy of redress for those working to refute revisionist interpretations of history.

Contributing their poetry as a part of the presentation of this theme were Amy Uyematsu, Gloria Alvarez, and Junichi Semitsu.  Their readings touched upon the issues of the incarceration of Japanese Americans, the forced repatriation of Mexican Americans and the state of this country after 9/11.

To provide an update on the continuing campaign for Japanese Latin Americans, Congressman Xavier Becerra announced the introduction of legislation calling for a federal commission to investigate and determine the facts around the removal, deportation and incarceration of JLAs by the U.S. government.  Becerra and Senator Inouye introduced the bill on February 15, 2006.  In addition, Robin Toma, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and founding member of the Campaign for Justice, spoke about the on-going campaign and the CFJ’s plans for another community delegation to Washington D.C.

The DOR committee and the entire community suffered a terrible loss during the planning of the 2006 DOR.  In December 2005 Tom Hayashi died suddenly—just a few days after attending a DOR planning meeting.