Last week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) naturalized fourteen new U.S. citizens during a ceremony held at the Manzanar National Historic Site, the former site of one of ten camps used by the government to detain over 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
USCIS chose the location in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Manzanar National Historic Site, located six miles south of Independence, California, now stands to preserve and interpret the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the Unted States. The ceremony, held on May 25, also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, which oversees the site.
Honorable Paul M. Igasaki, Chair and Chief Judge of the Administrative Review Board at the U.S. Department of Labor -- whose own family members were incarcerated during World War II -- served as the ceremony's keynote speaker. Here is a transcript of his remarks:
