Soldiers Memorial Military Museum announces opening of Smithsonian traveling exhibit, ‘Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II’

A Smithsonian traveling exhibition examines the complex history of WWII Japanese American incarceration camps. The exhibit will run July 24 – October 3 at the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum located in St. Louis, MO.

The Mochida family, wearing identification tags awaits a bus. They were forced to leave their two-acre nursery and greenhouse in Eden, California, May 1942. Dorthea Lange, Courtesy of National Archives.

St. Louis, MO - Soldiers Memorial Military Museum, located in Downtown St. Louis, MO., announced the opening of the Smithsonian traveling exhibition “Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II” on July 24, 2021. "Righting a Wrong” is the second temporary exhibition to be on display on the lower level of Soldiers Memorial, which was renovated to serve as a rotating exhibit gallery as part of the Missouri Historical Society’s $30 million revitalization of Soldiers Memorial and its adjacent Court of Honor, completed in 2018.

The exhibition examines the complicated history and impact of Executive Order 9066 that led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Embracing themes that are as relevant today as they were nearly 80 years ago, “Righting a Wrong” looks at immigration, prejudice, civil rights, heroism, and what it means to be an American.

The Soldiers Memorial team is adding a small local component to the Smithsonian traveling exhibit that highlights St. Louis’s connection to this important story, such as Japanese American students, including notable architects Richard Henmi and Gyo Obata, who attended Washington University in order to avoid internment in the camps. Soldiers Memorial will also explore local connections to this story through a series of blog posts (read the first here) and a variety of public programming that will coincide with the exhibit.

Don’t miss the virtual event “How the Hattoris Became St. Louisans: One Family’s Incarceration during WWII” on Thursday, July 22, 2021, at 6:30 pm.

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