By Staff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Pike Place Market. By Another Believer – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Pike Place Market has cancelled grassroots advocacy organization Tsuru for Solidarity’s Day of Remembrance event, saying that the group’s message of resistance did not align with the Pike Place Market foundation’s purpose as a social service organization, the Seattle Times reported today.
The Day of Remembrance is meant to commemorate the 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII, following Executive Order 9066.
The foundation released an apology for the cancellation on Thursday, acknowledging that the foundation’s decision “created direct harm and impacted our entire community, specifically our Japanese American advocates and neighbors who are threatened by federal deportation policies and orders.”
The foundation also said that it was “in communication with Tsuru for Solidarity and are requesting the opportunity for a repair process.”
Tsuru for Solidarity will instead hold its Feb. 19 Day of Remembrance event at a new locale, Hing Hay Park. The event will start at 9:45 a.m., and will be followed by a march to Chiyo’s Garden at 10 a.m.
At the garden, both Tsuru for Solidarity and fellow advocacy organization La Resistencia will hold a press conference to remember the forced removal in 1942 of Japanese and Japanese Americans from their homes and businesses, following Executive Order 9066.
Speakers at the press conference will include Japanese American descendents of Pike Place Market vendors and Erin Shigaki, the artist behind the mural in Nihonmachi Alley. The mural was recently defaced.
Speakers will also call on electeds to commit to defending immigrants from ICE raids, detentions, and mass deportations.
After the press conference, participants will visit sites of historical importance for Japanese Americans, including Nihonmachi Alley, the former Immigration Station (INSCAPE), King Street Train Station, and Pike Place Market.