“Campu: An American Story” – Honoring Day of Remembrance 2025
Campu: An American Story – Honoring Day of Remembrance 2025
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025
6:30 PM
FREE
Join us for the unveiling of Campu: An American Story, an immersive portrait project exploring the resilience of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in camps during WWII. Since 2022, photographer and National Geographic Explorer Haruka Sakaguchi has traveled to all 10 camps and photographed over 80 Japanese Americans as they made pilgrimages to their former camps to reflect on this dark chapter in U.S. history.
This special event will feature a live presentation introducing the project and a screening of the short documentary Loyal American (2025, 9 min.)—directed by Haruka and produced by National Geographic Society’s Impact Story Lab. A Q&A with Sakaguchi and the film’s protagonist will follow the screening.
This event is co-presented by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and the National Geographic Society.
In addition to an in-person event, we will be live-streaming this event. To receive the Zoom link, please register for this event and click the live stream option. We will send you the live stream link by email the week of the event.
Haruka Sakaguchi (b. 1990) is a Japanese documentary photographer based outside of New York City. She was born in Osaka, Japan and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was three months old. Haruka’s documentary work focuses on cultural identity and intergenerational trauma. Her clients include The New York Times, National Geographic, Time Magazine, ProPublica, The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, BBC News, Bloomberg Businessweek, NPR, Newsweek and The Washington Post among other publications.
Henry Kaku’s (sansei) entire family was deported and sent to Japan after WWII. Although they were born in California, his family lost their U.S. Citizenship during this time. It was not until 1956 that Henry became a U.S. Citizen at 8 years old, and his family returned to California.
Henry is now the Speakers Bureau Chair for the Sonoma County Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).