Author to Discuss WWII Experience of Japanese Mexicans

Dr. Selfa A. Chew, author of “Uprooting Community: Japanese Mexicans, World War II, and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,” will speak on Saturday, May 12, at 1 p.m. at the Manzanar National Historic Site, 5001 Hwy. 395 in Independence.

In her book, Chew examines the lived experience of Japanese Mexicans in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands during World War II. Studying the collaboration of Latin American nation-states with the U.S. government, she illuminates the efforts to detain, deport, and confine Japanese residents and Japanese-descent citizens of Latin American countries during the 1940s.

Come learn about the World War II incarceration of people of Japanese descent beyond the U.S., and how the U.S. influenced incarceration policies of its neighbors to the south.

Free and open to the public.

Chew will also be the keynote speaker at Manzanar’s third annual Naturalization Ceremony on Friday, May 11.

For more information, call (760) 878-2194, ext. 3310, or visit www.nps.gov/manz or www.facebook.com/ManzanarNationalHistoricSite.