Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration has launched “Voicing Refuge,” an online sonic monument of spoken names, and invites the public to read aloud and record recitations of individual names in the Ireizō archive, as a way of honoring those unjustly incarcerated during World War II.
The Ireizō is an online archive of all persons of Japanese ancestry, numbering over 125,000, who were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated in U.S. Army, Department of Justice (DOJ), Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA), and War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps during the war.
The “Voicing Refuge” initiative expands the Ireizō archive, originally launched in February 2024, from a searchable repository of the names of the incarcerated and digital images that tell the stories of the person behind a name to a ritual memorial that deploys the power of the human voice to protect the Japanese American WWII incarceration from being excised from our national memory.
Several early participants in “Voicing Refuge” who have recited names meaningful to them have commented on their experience of reading aloud and submitting a voice recording.
After reciting the name of her grandmother, Eiko Masuyama commented, “Bachan was the silent one, ever present, watching over me from birth through college days. Now, when I voiced her name, Miyo Masuyama, in gratitude, way overdue, I remember.”
Willitte Herman, in saying the names of both her father William Takeo Ishii and mother Fusaye Ishii, noted, “Could sound travel back in time? Could our ancestors, whose spirits have been stilled for so long, be brought forth to vibrate in light once again with the utterance, the invocation, of their name? It’s the essence of a single prayer, the speaking of a name, that pledges I will remember you for all time.”
“Voicing Refuge” is accessible from anywhere around the world, and by joining our voices together, we become the monument to this history. For instructions on how to read and record names from the archive of names, visit the Ireizō website, www.ireizo.org.