JASC is proud to be a community partner for Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy, an exhibit currently on display at the Illinois Holocaust Museum through June 1. This powerful exhibit sheds light on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066 and explores its lasting impact.

As part of the exhibit’s coverage, longtime JASC supporter Dr. Roy Wesley represented JASC in a recent interview with Fox 32. A former internee himself, Dr. Wesley shared his family’s story—how they were uprooted from their home in Portland, Oregon, and sent to a camp in Idaho when he was just an infant. He spoke about the devastating impact of incarceration, the loss of his father’s medical practice, and his journey to uncover the truth about his own history.

The exhibit not only highlights personal stories like Dr. Wesley’s but also examines the broader legacy of wartime incarceration and its connections to present-day injustices. A key installation features thousands of tags bearing the names of those imprisoned, a stark reminder of the individuals behind the numbers. 

Dr. Wesley and JASC remain committed to ensuring these stories are remembered so that history does not repeat itself. As Dr. Wesley emphasized in his interview, “If we forget this period of time, worse atrocities will happen in the future.”

Thank you Dr. Wesley for sharing your story and representing JASC to share this incredibly important history.

We encourage our community to visit the exhibit, reflect on its lessons, and continue the conversation about justice, resilience, and remembrance.

Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy is open through June 1 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie.

Read the full story on the FOX 32 website.