Please note: This lecture will be held in person in room 1010, Weiser Hall, and virtually on Zoom. The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at https://myumi.ch/8qng5

Between 1943 and 1945, the University of Michigan hired hundreds of formerly-incarcerated Japanese Americans to work on campus – many as janitors, cooks, and hospital orderlies – even as it refused to enroll incarcerated Japanese American students. This lecture will delve into the long-forgotten history of how wartime labor shortages at U-M dovetailed with the federal government’s program to resettle incarcerated Japanese Americans away from the Pacific coast. The talk will also introduce the Yuzuru J. Takeshita Nikkei Workers Memorial Project, a CJS initiative that has created a database and map of 401 formerly-incarcerated Japanese Americans who worked for the University of Michigan between 1943 and 1945.

Brad Hammond is a doctoral student with the Van Hunnick History Department at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the global and local politics of postwar Japanese corporate expansion into the United States and its intersections with U.S. urban history and Japanese American history. He is a contributing writer for the Tokyo-based Chiiki zasshi tsukuda tsukishima and serves on the board of the Little Tokyo Historical Society in Los Angeles, California.

Accommodation: If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at cjsevents@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.