The Day of Exile

On May 16, 1942, with two days’ notice, armed guards herded 111 Vashon residents onto trucks at the island’s downtown Ober Park to be sent to detention camps in Pinedale, California. Their crime was to be of Japanese descent during WWII. This year on May 16 the Friends of Mukai will commemorate that Day of Exile in a special event at Mukai Farm and Garden on Vashon. Mukai friend, Joe Okimoto, will join REALTalk host Susan McCabe this week to illuminate the four years of internment Vashon’s Japanese American residents experienced during WWII. Only 30 percent of those imprisoned returned to Vashon. The rest were scattered around the US. Tune in. It’s – unfortunately – sure to be REAL.