On May 9th, Yukio Shimomura took to the stage at the Dublin Library to share his family’s experience in the Japanese internment camps during World War 2. His presentations are given to university students and East Bay residents alike, intending to shed light on the impacts and the inner workings of Executive Order 9066. The wartime policy incarcerated thousands of Japanese-Americans in internment camps in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Despite its widespread effects on the Bay Area, the stories of the interned are not often well-known. 

“I realized that there’s a lot of people who don’t know anything about the whole process of Executive Order 9066. There are a few people who knew something about it, and then there are some people who knew a lot about it…That made it interesting to speak [about the experience],” said presenter and former internee Yukio Shimomura. 

History: From A Different Perspective

Though audience members were undoubtedly unfamiliar with being interned, some provided alternative perspectives. Those who experienced Pearl Harbor and World War 2 recalled living in fear of espionage, as opposed to the fear of displacement their Japanese counterparts experienced. The presentation was an opportunity for both sides to share their stories. 

“I [came] to hear his side of the story. I remember the aftermath. What I remember as a child was those bad people in the airplanes that bombed Pearl Harbor, and [how] my uncle almost died at Pearl Harbor. There was hatred. That was a very sad time. It makes me feel sorry that I felt that way as a child… and we’ve learned from it. I didn’t know anybody before who had been at one of the camps. I really wanted to hear [his perspective],” said audience member Diana Threlkeld. 

While Japanese internment plays a significant role in American history, the intricacies of life in internment often remain unknown. In his presentations, Shimomura, though nine years old at the time, paints a vivid picture of life in the camps — from the sights and smells of relocation centers to the modified daily routines of internment. 

“I didn’t know anything about the camps that they had to go through. And the way they were moved from one area to another in camps. It was very interesting to get his opinion…and what he had to go through,” said audience member Thomas Threlkeld. 

Community Engagement

To audience members who have attended more than one of Shimomura’s presentations, there is a pattern in how he approaches his audience. Before the presentation begins, Shimomura weaves throughout the audience, shaking hands in greeting and asking questions. 

“What I try to do to reduce my nervousness before the presentation starts is I try to connect with people. The way I start the conversation is: ‘what brings you here?’ ‘Why are you interested in the subject matter that I’ll be speaking about?’ Then it gives me an opportunity to listen to why their interest is piquing enough that they’d spend a couple hours with me,” said Shimomura. 

While each audience is different, Shimomura manages to make connections between his experiences with those of his viewers. At the Dublin seminar, a Japanese-American attorney was asked if he would defend an incarcerated Japanese-American individual — a legal issue surrounding internment at the time. By engaging conversations with the audience, Shimomura connects the past to the present. Sometimes, audience members even include the children of former internees or fellow Japanese-Americans who have familial ties to internment.

“The more interesting thing too is the experience I’ve had [with] the people who were interned that attend. It’s like a reunion. We exchange our sentimentalness about being in the camp and how hard it was. It’s an exchange that’s hard to express in words, because there’s so much emotion that’s exchanged while we’re just talking to each other. A lot of times it ends up being in tears, between who I’m talking to and myself because [of] the memories. I have people recollect their memories; it really brings back some of the hard memories that they’ve lived through with them with their parents,” said Shimomura. 

A Lesson and a Warning

As global conflict grows increasingly dominant, Shimomura seeks to warn against intercommunity division through his share of history. Shimomura links forced internment to modern-day deportation camps; World War 2 to ongoing territorial conflicts in the Middle East.

“I try to communicate it — what everybody knows — [that] war is obsolete. I’ve been through the 2nd World War, Korean War, and all the Middle East Wars. It’s just a terrible thing to have to go through. To spend all that money on armament and not spend it on the people that are really suffering in the world… there are people that are hurting,” said Shimomura.

To Shimomura, the widening dissonance in the United States only makes way for greater suffering. Lessons can be learned from history — hence why it is important to continue discussing historical events such as Japanese-American internment. 

“The old story of history repeats itself. It’s repeating itself just by the way that we still continue to go to war. We still continue to discriminate. You have to remind people that we’re all citizens of the world, because if we don’t, we won’t get along. For the young people, take a history class and take it seriously.  I’ve had the privilege of being able to see the devastation. But I’ve also seen what happens to certain groups of people that cooperate and get along,” said Shimomura.

This story was originally published on Amador ValleyToday on May 26, 2026.