The Ireichō or Book of Names will come to the Seattle area at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church on March 27 and to the Remembrance Gallery in Puyallup on March 28.

The Ireichō is an accurate and comprehensive list of every person of Japanese ancestry incarcerated in the World War II camps. A newer version of the book will have over 126,000 names of persons detained nationwide, not just along the West Coast.

The idea of a book as a monument is inspired by the Japanese tradition of Kakochō (literally, “The Book of the Past”), a book of names typically placed on a Buddhist temple altar and brought out for memorial services when the names of those to be remembered are chanted. More details about the book and the project that spawned the book is at the Ireichō project website.

Stay tuned for more details…

Keywords: Ireicho