Smithsonian director to speak at YSU

The event commemorates the internment of Japanese- Americans in World War II.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Franklin Odo, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Asian Pacific American Program, will be the keynote speaker for a symposium Feb. 19 commemorating the internment of Japanese Americans and restrictions imposed on others during World War II.
The event will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.
Odo's address, "National Security and Racial Profiling after Pearl Harbor: World War II and the Japanese American Internment," will focus on the historical and legal background of the World War II internment.
Gail Okawa, associate professor of English at YSU and coordinator of the event, will mark the signing of President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans.
The symposium will also feature reflections by the Rev. Brian Nagata, a Buddhist minister from Berkeley, Calif.; a slide presentation by Okawa on specific experiences of Japanese immigrant internees; a lecture by local attorney Staughton Lynd on current detentions; a lecture on the Patriot Act by Christine Link of the American Civil Liberties Union; and a panel discussion.
The symposium is co-sponsored by YSU's Arts and Sciences Dean's Office, the James Dale Ethics Center, Peace and Conflict Studies, the Provost's Office, the English and Political Science departments and the Valley Coalition for Peace and Justice. The event is free and open to public.