On September 24, 2022, the Japanese American National Museum hosted a private event to consecrate and install the Ireichō, a sacred book that records the names of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly imprisoned in US Army, Department of Justice, and War Relocation Authority camps during World War II.
A procession of interfaith clergy, survivors, and descendants from seventy-five World War II incarceration sites carried the Ireichō and sotoba (wooden markers) with the names and soil from each site on them from JANM’s Historic Building to the Aratani Central Hall inside the Museum, where it was ceremonially consecrated and installed in JANM.
JANM’s Historic Building, is the former Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. Built in 1925, the temple was a social hub, a site of forced removal during World War II, a storage center for Japanese Americans’ belongings during World War II, and a hostel for Japanese Americans returning to the Los Angeles area after the war.
Watch the video and view the photographs below that documented the ceremony.
過去のイベント
Ireichō Procession and Ceremony highlights
Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration Launch (9/24/22)
Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration Launch (9/24/22)
Slideshow of Procession & Ceremony
Ireichō procession
Photo by Grant Gulesserian
Amache camp survivor leads the Ireichō procession
Photo by Nobuyuki Okada
Ireichō procession participants holding Griffith Park sotoba
Photo by Doug Mukai
Ireichō procession with participants holding sotoba
Photo by Nobuyuki Okada
Procession of clergy carrying the Ireichō
Photo by Nobuyuki Okada
Participants in the Ireichō procession during the ceremony
Photo by Tracy Kumono
Clergy carry the Ireichō into the ceremony
Photo by Tracy Kumono
Ireichō open to the incarcerees’ names
Photo by
Duncan Williams speaks during the Ireichō ceremony
Photo by Nobuyuki Okada
Woman touches ceramic piece made of soil from all of the camps in the Ireichō
Photo by Tracy Kumono
Participant touches the ceramic piece made of soil from all the camps
Photo by Tracy Kumono
A visitor stamps the Ireichō
Photo by Mike Palma
Visitors hold a photograph of a family member in front of the sotoba
Photo by Mike Palma
William T Fujioka, chairman of JANM’s Board of Trustees, speaking at the ceremony
Photo by Tracy Kumono
Clergy opening the Ireichō on the table
Photo by Tracy Kimono