Yuen: Book of Japanese American names sounds an alarm for today
The federal government’s scapegoating and incarceration of 126,000 people of Japanese ancestry speaks volumes to Minnesota now.
The book weighs nearly 30 pounds. Its thick pages contain the names of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II.
Sally Sudo, 90 and bedecked in sparkly sneakers, spotted hers.
Page after page shows the devastating scale to which racism and hysteria became public policy. It is proof that thousands of American families lost their homes and freedom.
“It means that we’re finally being validated,” Sudo said about the registry, known as the Ireichō. “All these people were incarcerated, really only based on the fact that we were of Japanese ancestry. There were no other crimes involved. It was just a time that destroyed a lot of lives.”
Ireichō, which translates to “book to console the spirits,” is a traveling monument that recently stopped at Historic Fort Snelling. The three-day visit, presented with help from the Minnesota Historical Society and the Twin Cities Japanese American Citizens League, was so popular that the 130 or so available appointments filled up immediately. Families traveled from as far as Oklahoma and Hawaii.
Since 2025, the tome has been making its way across the country, infused with the tears of camp survivors and their descendants. It confirms one of the most horrid chapters of our government turning on its own people.
Among the most famous names in the book is that of “Star Trek” actor George Takei, who was 5 when his family was uprooted from Los Angeles and later imprisoned in facilities in Arkansas and California. Families of the incarcerated, as well as the general public, are invited to stamp a blue dot below an individual’s name.
The monument’s power comes from the willingness of Americans to interact with this disturbing piece of their past, said Duncan Ryūken Williams, a University of Southern California professor who co-founded the project. “Sometimes difficult history around race and American life has been whitewashed, downplayed or even erased. But having a book like this means it can’t be denied.”
