Author Mary Matsuda-Gruenewald will discuss her experiences in a World War II internment camp and the lingering impacts the camps have had on the Japanese-American community during a talk at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The event is free and open to the public and will take place on Friday, April 20, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in room 180 of the Benson Earth Sciences Building, which is located southeast of Folsom Stadium. A reception and book signing will follow the talk, said Arturo Aldama, an associate professor of ethnic and Latino studies and director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America.
"It is a true honor to have an elder come and share her profound experiences and illuminate the campus community on this ugly chapter of race hysteria," Aldama said.
Matsuda-Gruenewald's memoir, "Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps," details what it was like for thousands of U.S. citizens and Latin American immigrants of Japanese descent to be detained against their will by the U.S. government in domestic camps following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
In 1942 the federal government sent more than 110,000 men, women and children to 10 internment camps in seven states, according to the Manzanar National Historic Site. In Colorado, Japanese-Americans were detained at the Amache Camp near Granada, about 140 miles east of Pueblo.
During her CU-Boulder talk, Matsuda-Gruenewald will touch on the lingering socio-cultural impacts the internment camps have had on the Japanese-American community and how those experiences are linked with racial profiling in the United States today.
Matsuda-Gruenewald, 82, published her first book in 2005. She began writing her story in her 70s, no longer willing to stay within what she describes as "the self-imposed, barbed-wire fence built around my experiences in the camps."
Her articles on internment during World War II have appeared in newspapers around the country, and she has presented radio commentaries for National Public Radio and other media outlets. Matsuda-Gruenewald also consulted with the National Park Service during its establishment of the Minidoka Internment Camp as a National Park. In addition, she speaks to many schools and community groups about her experiences.
For more information about Matsuda-Gruenewald's book go to . To learn more about the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America, visit www.colorado.edu/CSERA/index.htm>