Unveiling of the Francis Miyosaku Uyematsu Monument at Mira Costa High School

Thank you longtime Manhattan Beach educator Chuck Currier and Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) for today's unveiling of the Francis Miyosaku Uyematsu monument at Mira Costa High School. The Uyematsu family owned 120 acres of land in Manhattan Beach before World War II, including all of the land that is Mira Costa High School today. However, because of the wartime mass incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans by the US Government, the Uyematsus eventually had to sell the land to then Redondo Beach Unified School District. Longtime activist Mary Uyematsu Kao gave a powerful speech weaving together the history of the South Bay from the Gabrielino Tongva indigenous people to Bruce’s Beach to the Japanese American mass incarceration and the ongoing struggle for social justice for all. The monument will help teach current and future generations of students of this South Bay history, in hopes that this injustice will never happen again.