The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II represents one of the darkest times in American history.

As part of Black History Month and the Day of Remembrance, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences faculty members will lead a discussion on the topic.

“Black History Month & Day of Remembrance: Commemorating Japanese American Internment” will be held virtually February 9 from 5 to 7 p.m. Advance registration for the free event is available here.

The event will begin with a viewing of Mountains That Take Wing, a film that features internationally renowned scholar, professor, and writer Angela Davis and 89-year-old grassroots organizer and Nobel Peace Price nominee Yuri Kochiyama. 

These women spent over a decade conversing intimately about their personal histories, their overlapping experiences, and the influences that shaped them. The film offers the gift of these two remarkable women’s lives, featuring their recorded exchanges in 1996 and 2008.

The film’s unique format honors the scope and depth of the women’s knowledge on topics ranging from Jim Crow laws and Japanese American internment camps, to Civil Rights, anti-war, women’s and gay liberation movements, to today’s campaigns for political prisoners and prison reform. Intercut with compelling period footage, Davis’ and Kochiyama’s cogent observations, keen analyses, and steadfast resolve to create a more equitable, humane world offer inspiring lessons in empowerment and community building for current and future generations.

The discussion following the film viewing will be led by Ellington Graves, director of Africana Studies in the Department of Sociology and assistant provost for diversity and inclusion at Virginia Tech; Bikrum Gill, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science; Andrea Baldwin, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology; and Suchitra Samanta, a collegiate associate professor in the Department of Sociology.

The event is sponsored by the Virginia Tech Office for Inclusion and Diversity in partnership with the American Indian & Indigenous Community Center; the Asian Cultural Engagement Center; the Black Cultural Center; El Centro; the Intercultural Engagement Center; the Women’s Center; the Center for Humanities; the Department of History; the Office of Recruitment, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Graduate School; VT Engage; and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.


Contact Nina Ha at nha@vt.edu for more information.