2023-02-19 MP: Remembrance Day

MP: Remembrance Day

Participants: Riko

Storyteller: Elyse

Location: Japantown, Remembrance Day Ceremony

Date and Time: February 19, 2023 6:00 pm

Summary: Riko attends the ceremony to memorialize the victims and struggles experienced by people of Japanese descent who were sent to internment camps in the United States during World War II. Riko's grandmother was sent to Manzanar near Death Valley. She runs into a member of Atlas International who asked her to help raise funds for their work to try to modernize facilities at Manzanar. She initially declines, but takes the card from the man.

The 19th of February is a cold day in Los Angeles. Clouds hang low over the horizon, and someone has put out a small stage on the Japanese Village Plaza. While the evening closes in, people start to gather. For a moment, people seem silent, until a short man takes the stage. "Today in 1942, People of japanese descent were taken from their homes and deported into camps for nothing but the nation of their ancestors. Many had offered to join the army since the early december of 1941, right after Pearl Harbor, and while some were initially allowed into home battalions, they were suddenly sent home on january 19. Then, a month later, on this day, all of them learned why. The government released order 9066 and wanted them gone out of sight, claiming them saboteurs and spies. It wasn't until February 1943 that some were allowed to fight, and those that didn't want to, were seggregated and punished for it. It was a horrible chapter, a step back. Today we are here to honor those that went to the camps and came not back as well as those that went there and were forced to go overseas to fight the war and those that were interred and released. All of them suffered a blow against one of the foundations of America...."

The speech goes on, citing a few survivors and contemporaries, making a rather solemn tone in trying to honor those lost. Riko stands with other visitors, silently listening, a small trinket pressed against her chest while she put up a Kimono to honor the lost.

One of the men on stage is dressed in a stylish suit, three piece with a slim tie. He's white, and looks slightly out of place from the others who are presenting speeches or otherwise commemorating the date. After the speech ends, the man steps forward at the urging of the short man. He unbuttons one of the buttons on his jacket, takes a deep breath, and says, "What was done in the past was a tragedy. This is why Atlas International has decided to provide generous funding to help preserve the sites as national monuments to survivors. Our initial work on Bainbridge Island has shown that more people are becoming educated about this shameful course of American history. All proceeds that come from visiting Bainbridge Island now go towards charities to help Japanese-Americans in Washington. We hope to bring this same initiative to California."

"At Atlas International, we have helped in many efforts to assist in providing safe power to everyone, and recently worked to help cleanup after the disaster at Fukushima. Our regional headquarters in Tokyo has sent cultural aides and workers to help commemorate those who suffered," he pauses, clearing his throat, "and the dead who were never allowed to leave these terrible places. Our first pilot program in California will be at Manzanar National Monument. We hope to have more information for you soon."

There is some mild clapping from the audience, but it's a pretty somber day -- and also it's hard to trust in someone swooping in with grand plans. The be-suited representative of Atlas International steps back, allowing the short man to take the stage again. The original speaker begins to call on people whose relatives died within the internment camps, who were apparently previously picked and appointed as they happen to be on stage nearby.

<OOC> Riko says, "what would I roll to see if I know *anything* about atlas?"
<OOC> Elyse says, "Hmm... Intelligence + Bureaucracy"
<OOC> Riko says, "doesn't have, so... diff 9?"
<OOC> Elyse says, "Yep!"
+ROLL/+DICE> Riko: Intelligence + Bureaucracy vs. 9 -> 1 success. (9 7 3)
<OOC> Elyse says, "Lucky roll!"
<OOC> Riko blinks, apparently has heard from them!
<OOC> Elyse says, "You would have heard some things about Atlas International. They're a nuclear energy corporation, as the guy said. They mostly operate in the United States and Europe. You remember a few news articles that indicate there were some birth defects in communities that had an Atlas power plant nearby, and there was a unionization campaign at a plant which was squashed pretty heavily."

Riko shudders a moment and shakes the head ever so slightly as she waits for the man to leave his post, and some old woman to tell how she had been in the camp as a child. When the speeking term finally comes to her, she steps forward. "I have not seen the suffering, for I was born generations later. But Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston did. She left us her book Farewell to Manzanar, an account of her times as a child in the camps. Her father was taken in December already, arrested for he was a Fisherman. But you'd hear people say Shikata ga nai, it can't be helped, it must be done. Today, we say the same words, over and over, because we can't change things. But even if we can't change things, can't change the past, we can do one thing: Remember. We can remember those that were erased, those that were harmed. Even if we can do nothing against the odds, we can remember. And today is the day to remember our families, and the plight they went through. Let me read you one paragraph from her, so we shall remember together:

Subdued, resigned, Papas lifeall our livestook on a pattern that would hold for the duration of the war. Public shows of resentment pretty much spent themselves over the loyalty oath crises. Shikata ga nai again became the motto, but under altered circumstances. What had to be endured was the climate, the confinement, the steady crumbling away of family life. But the camp itself had been made livable. The government provided for our physical needs. My parents and older brothers and sisters, like most of the internees, accepted their lot and did what they could to make the best of a bad situation. Were here, Woody would say. Were here, and theres no use moaning about it forever.

She closes the little book she had read from, then bows a little, stepping away to open for the next speaker. The white man from Atlas she didn't fully leave from sight.

The people in the crowd watch Riko as she speaks, focusing on content of the speech. The master of ceremonies nods along with what Riko reads. He claps for her as she steps back and bows, then moves to usher one of the other speakers up to begin telling a story about Camp Tulelake.

The man from Atlas watches Riko carefully, his bright blue eyes holding on her. He smooths his thinning hair back from his forehead and takes a moment to wait for her to step fully away from the other speakers, then crosses to stand next to her.

"Very stirring speech," he murmurs to her. "I recognize you, you're the lead in Eyes Open." A pause, briefly watching the current speaker. He then says, "How would you like to help us with some work? We need to raise awareness of Manzanar and our work in preserving the site. Tourism there is down," he mentions in a quiet tone.

<OOC> Riko says, "soooomething doesn't feel right about him..."
<OOC> Elyse says, "Give me a Wits+Empathy roll!"
+ROLL/+DICE> Riko: Wits + Empathy vs. 6 -> 1 success. (9 8 6 2 1 1)
<OOC> Elyse says, "Yes, there's definitely something off about him, he's being a little pushy, but it's unclear what his motives are."
<OOC> Elyse says, "But he indeed has a motive!"

Riko offers a tiny nod to the Man from Atalas. "I just mirrored the words of someone that did suffer. It has nothing to do with my work." But his offer isn't outright rejected on the spot. "The place is not a tourist destination, but it can't be forgotten, that I agree on. Yet I would need to know more about what you plan to decide how I could help making it be remembered better work."

"But it is a tourist destination," the man says. "Not in the way that we think of. It's not Cabo or the Santa Monica pier. It's like the USS Arizona Monument in Honolulu, or the 9/11 monument in Manhattan. People go there to learn about their history, not to enjoy themselves. That said, the park will get shuttered if it doesn't get more money." The Atlas International representative pauses, and another speaker takes the stage. Final one. This one actually has a story about her grandparents being interned at Bainbridge Island near Seattle.

The man from Atlas continues quietly to Riko, "Atlas is more than willing to buy out the location and make it a private monument. Perhaps that would be better. Obviously we don't have the portfolio to manage something like that, but it would be better than letting the government misuse funds, wouldn't it?" He folds his arms in front of his chest and shrugs. One of his arms slips under his suit jacket and extracts a business card. He hands it off to Riko. "Call me if you're interested."

Riko's eyebrows narrow at the last point the Atlas representative mentions, clearly sceptical of the idea. Buying out the place of suffering, especially as an atomic energy consortium, does not ring well with her. But Riko does take the card after some moments, with both hands, to read it and then ever so carefully put it away. "I will give it a thought." She answers noncommitting, though she already knows what she'll not do:

Joining forces to privatize the national monument in the hands of a multinational corp? So not going to happen on her watch.

The time is February 19th, Remembrance of the Internment Camps is being done. A crowd has gathered and people are speaking of their families' connections to the internment camps. Riko has just spoken not long ago, and a woman is on stage, talking about her grandparents' experiences on Bainbridge Island in Washington, after which they relocated to California. Shortly before this, a white man -- who is now walking away from Riko -- gave a speech indicating Atlas International's goal in helping to rebuild some of the old sites and allow for the monuments to be more cared for, allowing any proceeds from visitors to the camp monuments to go to charities to help Japanese Americans.

The man says, before leaving Riko, "Just give it some thought, definitely." And off he goes. He takes a moment to greet the master of ceremonies for this event, as well as some key businessmen that are local to the community. The ceremony is at its end now, and the man from Atlas is on his way off the stage and towards a waiting black Land Rover.