"The Life of Japanese Americans at Seabrook Farms during the Second World War"
Lecture and discussion with Masaru Edmund Nakawatase, Alfred Hirotoshi Nishikawa and Rob Buscher.
“The Life of Japanese Americans at Seabrook Farms during the Second World War” focuses on the history of Japanese American families who were relocated from American concentration camps in 1944 and employed at Seabrook Farms in Southern New Jersey, about an hour from Philadelphia. Seabrook Farms, now called Seabrook Brothers and Sons, established by Charles F. Seabrook in 1913, processes vegetables through flash freezing and dehydration.
About the presenters:
Masaru Edmund Nakawatase (Keynote speaker) was born in Poston, Arizona one of the 10 major Internment Camps and grew up in Seabrook, New Jersey, the son of plant workers at Seabrook Farms, and currently a Trustee of Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center. He currently serves on the board of Asian Americans United (AAU) in Philadelphia. He retired from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) after 31 years as the organization's National Representative for Native American Affairs.
Alfred Hirotoshi Nishikawa (Panelist) is a native of San Francisco. During WWII as a four-year old, he and his family were sent to Poston, AZ concentration camp and incarcerated for the duration of the war. Hiro became involved with the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in 1997 and has served as chapter president and district governor. More recently he has been involved in comprehensive immigration reform with PICC and UUPLAN (Unitarian Universalist Pennsylvania Legislative Action Network.) He is active on the boards of the Philadelphia JACL, and the Japanese Association of Greater Philadelphia.
Rob Buscher (Moderator) is the Philadelphia Chapter President of civil rights group Japanese American Citizens League and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Asian American Studies Program. He is a contributing writer at Pacific Citizen and Gidra.