This panel dialogue marks the opening of the new special exhibition at the Presidio Officers’ Club, Exclusion: The Presidio’s Role in World War II Japanese American Incarceration. Exclusion is the latest special exhibition at the Presidio Officers' Club, a cultural institution showcasing the Presidio's role in shaping and serving the nation. Special exhibitions explore the Presidio's heritage and allow for fresh perspectives and a deeper exploration of the topics and themes presented in the club's permanent exhibition.
The military, the press, and the law were three institutions central to implementing, understanding, and challenging World War II Japanese American incarceration. Explore these perspectives with Dr. Stephen Payne, Command Historian at the Presidio of Monterey’s Defense Language Institute and Foreign Language Center; Richard Reeves, author of Infamy: The Shocking Story of Japanese American Internment in World War II, journalist, and senior lecturer at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication; Don Tamaki, San Francisco civil rights attorney who served on the legal team that reopened the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Fred Korematsu, vacating his conviction for refusing to be incarcerated during World War II; and moderator, Jana Katsuyama, news reporter for KTVU FOX2 News.
In developing the Exclusion exhibition and its related public and school programming, the Presidio Trust staff collaborated with the Fred T. Korematsu Institute and the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS).