APABA is proud to partner with the Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival to present a live re-enactment of the Heart Mountain trials. 

In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing Japanese internment camps during World War II. One act of heroism and courage was exemplified by some 315 Japanese-American men that stood up to the draft in an act of civil disobedience, refusing to fight for the U.S. when their own constitutional rights and civil liberties were being denied. When your government takes away your rights as an American citizen and detains you and your family in internment camps without any due process, do you prove your loyalty to the United States by being drafted to fight in World War II or do you resist the draft and challenge the constitutionality of the government’s actions? 

Come join us for an abridged reading of trial transcripts and personal accounts that tell the story of the Heart Mountain Draft Resisters. This Community Conversation is presented by Colorado Dragon Boat and the Colorado Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA).

This event is Free! But spaces are limited. Please reserve your tickets HERE

*Words matter. This re-enactment may use words unaccustomed by the audience. Specific terms have been debated and vetted, while some continue to be highly controversial. In particular, the term “concentration camp” has spurred discussions with survivors and descendants of Nazi Germany’s Holocaust. In 1998, the American Jewish Committee and Japanese American National Museum held a large and formal discussion at Ellis Island about the use of “concentration camp” to describe the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Although that discussion resulted in a joint statement, beginning in 2018, the American Holocaust Memorial Museum published statements seemingly in opposition.

In 2020, terminology continues to be one of the most relevant and often-discussed topics associated with the history of Japanese American incarceration.