Signature Series: Sam Mihara Memories of Five Nisei

Friday, February 25, 2022
7:00 pm

The first installment of our 2022 Signature Series features Sam Mihara, who was 9 years old when Executive Order 9066 was signed and issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War 2. The order forced over 100,000 Japanese Americans, including Mihara and his family, out of their homes and into prison camps.

His presentation will explore the cause for the forced removal of Japanese people from the West Coast and why Germans and Italians in the rest of the country were treated differently. He’ll also discuss the camp’s conditions, what living there was like, lessons learned, and pose the question, “Can it happen again?”. A 2018 Paul A. Gagnon prize winner, Mihara has shared his story across the country.

The talk includes several images by professional photographer Dorothea Lange, along with Sam’s personal family photo collection.

The Carrico/Fort Thomas will close early at 5 pm to prepare for the event.

Free tickets are required.

Sam Mihara

Sam Mihara is a second-generation Japanese American. His parents were born in Japan and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s; he was born in the 1930s and raised in San Francisco. When World War II broke out, the United States government forced Sam and his family to move, first to a detention camp in Pomona, Calif., and then to a remote prison camp in Northern Wyoming, where they stayed for three years.

After the war ended and he was released from camp, Sam returned to San Francisco. He attended Lick Wilmerding High School and graduated from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA graduate school with engineering degrees. He became a rocket scientist with The Boeing Company, helping to insert many satellites into orbit.

Following retirement from Boeing, Sam created his own high-tech consulting firm where he enjoys meeting many clients around the world.

He developed the Memories of Heart Mountain presentation to educate people and help ensure such civil rights violations won’t happen again. In it, he tells the story of his family and what happened to them, why the camps were created and the important lessons that were learned from this experience.

Blindsided – The Life and Times of Sam Mihara

In a new book, The Life and Times of Sam Mihara, the Paul A. Gagnon Prize winner shares his harrowing experiences with Japanese incarceration and how he overcame a childhood fraught with adversity to become the man he is today. The text includes an appendix that outlines the most important events that marked the plight of Japanese Americans during the war, which altered the course of American history forever.

Pandemic Precautions

If Campbell County is ORANGE on the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s COVID-19 Dashboard, everyone, age 2 or older, who attends library programs are required to wear masks. Please note any accommodation requests in the Special Needs section of the registration form.

Thank You!

Thank you to the Friends of the Campbell County Public Library for making the Signature Series possible.

The Friends of the Campbell County Public Library help by volunteering for a number of tasks, from hosting library events to assisting staff with special projects. They seek to create public support for the library by keeping the community informed about library services.

Join the Friends

Carrico/Fort Thomas Branch