“One Fighting Irishman” Film Screening

Saturday, July 18, 1-4 pm – in-person is at capacity, please join us online. RSVP by clicking onthe button below.

Filmmaker Sharon Yamato will discuss her film on lawyer Wayne M. Collins and his defense of Japanese Americans at Tule Lake, as well as his representation of Japanese Latin Americans at the Crystal City Family Internment Camp. Collins’s son, Wayne M. Collins will also speak about his father’s work as well as his own efforts for Tule Lake renunciates. Also, joining the panel is Tule Lake Segregation Camp Survivor Hiroshi Shimizu and Crystal City Camp Survivor Japanese Peruvian Eloy Maoki.

ONE FIGHTING IRISHMAN, a 30-minute documentary, tells the story of the man who rescued more than 5,500 people from being deported to a country upon which many of them had never stepped foot.

This program is held in conjunction with “America’s Last WWII Concentration Camp: Crystal City”, the debut of a new traveling exhibit. Special Guest Diana Palacios, founder of the My Story Museum in Crystal City, Texas will attend. This will be the last event held in conjunction with the Crystal City exhibit at J-SEI.

Doors open at 12:30 pm.  Program begins at 1 pm.  Gallery open from 3 to 4 pm.

RSVP by clicking on the button below. Limited seating.

America’s Last Concentration Camp: Crystal City

Exhibit Dates: May 20 – July 22, 2026

J-Sei Gallery, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville

Gallery Hours: M Tu Th Fr 2-5 pm, or by appointment: 510-654-4000

About the Exhibit

The Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee will premiere its national traveling exhibit, based on their permanent exhibit at the My Story Museum in Crystal City, Texas. Additional interpretive panels will depict stories of the individual families who were incarcerated at Crystal City. Crystal City  Family Internment Camp, as it was called during the war, administered by the Department of Justice, held thousands of Japanese, Germans, and Italians in addition to Latin American residents of Axis nationalities.

Created as a family reunification center for immigrants arrested under the Alien Enemies Act in 1942, Crystal City remained open until 1948, long after WWII ended. Several hundred families were moved to Crystal City after their applications for reunification were approved. Several hundred families were moved to Crystal City after their applications for reunification were approved. In some cases, families waited a year or more to be reunited with their husband or father.

Crystal City was also used as a detention facility for individuals awaiting deportation in a prisoner of war exchange with Axis countries. The State Department devised a secret program called “Quiet Passages” to exchange prisoners held in DOJ prison camps for US civilians held behind enemy lines. Some prisoners went willingly, others were forcibly deported to Axis war zones. This included some children with US birthright citizenship whose parents were ineligible for naturalization, and Japanese Latin Americans who were kidnapped and brought to the US.

“By sharing our nation’s hidden histories and the powerful stories of survivors, we can begin to undo the historical amnesia that allows our government to harm children and families today,” said Crystal City Pilgrimage President Kaz Naganuma, whose family was forced to leave a flourishing laundry business in Peru and travel for three weeks by boat and train before being imprisoned in Texas.