Enduring Voices -A Free Event Exploring the Local Impacts of the Japanese American Incarceration of World War II

You know how sometimes history feels like it happened somewhere else, to someone else? According to the *Ventura Breeze*, the Ventura County Library is hosting a free event on May 12 that brings a painful chapter right to our own backyard. It’s part of the 2026 One Book, One Coast program, centered on George Takei’s graphic memoir *They Called Us Enemy*, and features a conversation with Dr. Lily Anne Welty Tamai. What makes this hit close to home is that Ventura County once had a thriving Japanese American farming community—families who grew the very crops that sustained our tables before being forced from their land and into incarceration camps during World War II.

This isn’t just a book talk; it’s a chance to reckon with the ground beneath our feet. That strawberry field you pass on the way to Oxnard? It might have been worked by a family who never got it back. By lifting up these “enduring voices,” we’re not only honoring their resilience but also understanding how that injustice echoes today. I hope you’ll carve out an evening to sit with this history—it’s a reminder that our community’s story is made of both beauty and brokenness, and that listening is the first step toward healing.