The Dakota County Historical Society will host a “Mendota After Hours" presentation at the Sibley Historic Site on Friday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. The presentation “Life in an American Concentration Camp: The Japanese American Experience During World War II" will be presented by Sally Sudo. Admission for this event is $20 per person, or $15 for members of DCHS and the Minnesota Historical Society.
The Sibley Historic Site is located at 1357 Sibley Memorial Highway in Mendota. Registration is limited, so contact the Sibley Site at 651-452-1596 to reserve a spot. For more information, or to reserve online, please visit the Dakota County Historical Society website.
Hear a first-hand account of the Japanese Americans who were interned in concentration camps in the United States during WWII. U.S. government policies imprisoned 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry solely based on race. As a child, Sudo was imprisoned for 3½ years, after President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. She was held at the Puyallup Assembly Center in Washington state and then on to Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho. In August 1945, her family relocated to Minneapolis, where her brother was stationed at Fort Snelling in the Military Intelligence Service Language School.
Sudo has retired from teaching in Minneapolis Public Schools and devoted her life to educating the public about injustices suffered by Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII so history will not repeat itself.