The Manitowoc Public Library will be hosting a very special guest speaker tomorrow evening. Sam Mihara was a young boy during WWII, and because he was of Japanese descent, he was forced to live in one of the internment camps the Government created during the War.
We asked Mihara about the camps and why they were built, and he explained that they came from the “hysteria and racial hatred” that stemmed from the Pearl Harbor attack. 120,000 people ended up being forced to relocate to these camps, and according to Mihara, were ”forced to stay there for approximately three years.” He went on to explain that it was “a very very difficult time for all of us.”
As for the presentation itself, Mihara says he plans on covering a wide range of aspects of the camps including who made the decision to move them into these camps, why the Germans and Italians weren’t treated the same way, the conditions of the camp, and who arranged to get them out of the camp. The free presentation will begin at 6:00 at the Manitowoc Public Library. There will also be a follow-up conversation held at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum on Saturday from 10:00 to 11:00 AM.
