Service Translation Project

In April 2022, the Service Translation team finished translating a 64+ page transcript, supplied to us by Go For Broke National Education Center, of interviews with Japanese American soldiers who served in WWII while many of their families were interned in U.S. internment camps.

As we are currently gathering new material from our recent partnership with Manzanar NPS to begin focusing on the stories of women and children in the internment camps, we will be continuing our partnership with Go For Broke National Education Center through the History in Translation Program.

History in Translation Program

History in Translation: An Experiential and Intercultural Exploration of Executive Order 9066 is a 12-day, experiential exploration of the impacts and lessons (past and present) of Executive Order 9066. 

Since recognized as an enduring and brutally impactful violation of civil rights, Executive Order 9066 was issued in 1942 by then U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in response to a fear of subterfuge by Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. The order entailed the incarceration of over 100,000 civilians of Japanese descent, the majority of whom were American citizens.

This in-person program took place in California (United States of America) from late July through early August, with some preliminary (remote) activities in May and June. The programing included collaborative translation (English/Japanese) and oral history activities; travel to “War Relocation Center” historic sites, including the Manzanar internment camp in Independence, CA; and on-site service/volunteer activities. While the program’s instruction and facilitation were delivered in English, students from the United States and Japan had the opportunity to collaborate, reflect, and learn as a team diverse in culture, language, and education.