On Victory Day, Some Rhode Islanders Push to Reconsider State Holiday

Rhode Island is the only state in the union that still commemorates the surrender of Japan in August 1945 as a legal holiday.

Victory Day was established in 1948 in Rhode Island, observed on the second Monday of August. It remembers the end of World War II and the sacrifices of the state’s veterans. But to some residents, the holiday is a painful reminder of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan that brought the war to a quick end. It also reopens the controversy about the internment of Japanese Americans in camps, mandated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he issued Executive Order 9066 in February 1942.

Among those calling for change is Newport resident Ken Nomiyama, a third-generation Japanese American who was born in a California internment camp.

The Public Radio’s Luis Hernandez spoke to Nomiyama. The full interview can be found here.