2012 marks the 70th anniversary of a momentous event in American history: the signing of Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible removal of more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent to concentration camps. Approximately two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens.

By way of commemoration, a distinguished group of panelists will discuss what the Japanese American experience of World War II has meant to them, how it has affected their work as historians and artists, and the strategies they have developed for integrating the Japanese American past with the American present and future as a whole.

Registration begins at 6 p.m. The first 50 registrants will receive complimentary copies of the following materials:

Donald Hata's Japanese Americans and World War II, From Our Side of the Fence featuring writings and art by Ruth Okimoto and choice of either Steven Okazaki's All We Could Carry or gayle yamada's Uncommon Courage.

Since 2006, more than 40,000 people in Mexico have died in drug-related homicides, and recent figures indicate that the pace and severity of drug-related violence is increasing. Experiencing a significant breakdown of its rule of law, the population of Ciudad Juárez alone suffered more than 3,000 homicides in 2010, making it the most dangerous city anywhere in the world. Dr. Poiré Romero will address the characteristics of the security situation in Mexico, the historical events and situations that made it what it is now, and the current strategy that the Federal Government is implementing to achieve security. Dr. Poiré’s talk will be completely off-the-record, and is by invitation only.

Speaker biography:

On September 9, 2011, Dr. Alejandro Poiré Romero was appointed as Director of Mexico´s National Security Agency by President Felipe Calderón. Prior to that, Dr. Poiré served as Secretary of the National Security Council and Cabinet, and has held a variety of cabinet-level positions since 2007. He also worked as an adviser to the National Institute of Statistics on the creation of the first National Survey on Political Culture and Citizenship Practices. He has published several academic pieces analyzing public opinion, campaign dynamics and voting behavior in Mexico, in addition to two books on Mexico’s democratic process, Towards Mexico’s Democratization: Parties, Campaigns, Elections, and Public Opinion and Mexico's Pivotal Democratic Election.

Dr. Poiré holds a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University, and a Bachelor’s degree in the same field from Mexico’s Autonomous Technological Institute (ITAM), where he has been a professor and the Political Science Department Chair. He has also been a visiting researcher and lecturer at several institutions in the USA, including MIT, and Latin America.