Tsuru for Solidarity: Stop Repeating History

125,000 paper cranes to DC in June 2020 for Tsuru for Solidarity’s “National Pilgrimage to Close the Camps”

Date: For release November 13, 2019

Press: Kathy Kojimoto (415) 572-3255; John Ota (415) 370-4497

General inquiries: tsuruforsolidarity@gmail.com

Japanese Americans from across the country will gather next spring in Washington, D.C. on June 5-7, 2020 for a “National Pilgrimage to Close the Camps.” We plan to bring 125,000 paper cranes, or tsuru, as expressions of solidarity with immigrant and refugee communities that are under attack today. The 125,000 cranes represent the members of our community who were rounded up and incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps during World War II, including both Japanese Americans and Japanese Latin Americans.

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Tsuru for Solidarity is a nonviolent, direct action project of Japanese American social justice advocates working to end detention sites and support front-line immigrant and refugee communities that are being targeted by racist, inhumane immigration policies. We stand on the moral authority of Japanese Americans who suffered the atrocities and legacy of U.S. concentration camps during WWII and we say, “Stop Repeating History!”

Never Again is NOW. Our mission is to:

educate, advocate, and protest to close all U.S. concentration camps;
build solidarity with other communities that have experienced forced removal, detention, deportation and separation of families;
coordinate intergenerational, cross-community healing circles addressing the trauma of our shared histories.

Why are we here?

“There comes a moment when you realize that nobody tried to stop the round-up and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII- and you will not participate in the repetition of that mistake. So, conscience must guide us to move with a valid action against this current violence. We must be the allies that our community needed.”

"Americans turned their backs on us as we disappeared. Nobody marched for us, nobody protested, but today we bring our voices, our drums, our tsuru spirit to speak out against unjust mass incarceration."

"'Never Again' is right now. It's happening all around us, every day. We must be vigilant in showing up and demanding that sites like Fort Sill be shut down. No one showed up for Japanese American families like mine in 1942, but we can and we must show up for immigrant children and families today.”

"For children to be separated from their parents for long periods of time is nothing anybody wants for anybody. We have to find a way politically, through laws, through legislation, to not let this happen, because it will traumatize a child for the rest of their life."

What is "tsuru"?

TSURU means crane in Japanese, and symbolizes peace, compassion, hope and healing. In the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding (origami), it is a popular, easy-to-learn figure that children and adults of all abilities can create. The cranes we fold today are expressions of SOLIDARITY with children, families and communities that are under attack.

Click here to learn more about how you can join in making tsuru>>

What have we done so far?

Tsuru for Solidarity has organized and participated in cross-community direct actions around the country to protest active and planned U.S. immigrant incarceration sites.

Watch some of our work here>>

(Read the transcript to video here)

How else can I get involved right now?

Support our work:

Click here to see upcoming events where Tsuru for Solidarity organizers will be presenting our work

Sign the petition to close the camps:

Sign the petition to end the Nakamoto Group's ICE Contract:

Why is the Japanese American concentration camp history important today?

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Order 9066, authorizing the displacement and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
With this order, the U.S. government uprooted the Japanese community from their homes and businesses, and incarcerated them for years in concentration camps, termed “War Relocation Authority Centers.”