Presidential Library and Museum
presents a Day of Remembrance
conversation and book signing
-- in observance of the
anniversary of Executive Order 9066 --
with Bradford Pearson, author of
THE EAGLES OF HEART MOUNTAIN:
A TRUE STORY OF FOOTBALL,
INCARCERATION, AND RESISTANCE
IN WORLD WAR II AMERICA
on Sunday, February 19, 2023; 2PM
In-person*: Henry A. Wallace Center
FDR Presidential Library and Home
[*local health metrics permitting;
Online: Streamed live to the
HYDE PARK, NY – The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents a Day of Remembrance conversation and book signing -- in observance of the anniversary of President Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 -- with Bradford Pearson, author of THE EAGLES OF HEART MOUNTAIN: A TRUE STORY OF FOOTBALL, INCARCERATION, AND RESISTANCE IN WORLD WAR II AMERICA, on Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The event will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home and streamed live to the official FDR Library YouTube, Twitter and Facebook accounts. This is a free public event*, but registration is required for in-person attendance. REGISTER HERE [*local health metrics permitting]. This program is made possible through the generous support of Patti Hirahara.
In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain. Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Nevertheless, they tried to recreate aspects of their lives before the camps.
In the fall of 1943, the camp’s high school launched its first football team, the Eagles. Against all odds, they went undefeated, crushing the competition from nearby, predominantly white high schools. Amid all this excitement, American politics continued to disrupt their lives as the federal government drafted men from the camps for the front lines -- including some of the Eagles. As the team’s second season kicked off, the young men faced a choice to either join the Army or resist the draft. Teammates were divided, and some were jailed for their decisions.
THE EAGLES OF HEART MOUNTAIN honors the resilience of extraordinary heroes and the power of sports in a “timely and utterly absorbing account of a country losing its moral way, and a group of its young citizens who never did” (Evan Ratliff, author of THE MASTERMIND).
Bradford Pearson is the former features editor of Southwest: The Magazine. He has written for The New York Times, Esquire, Time, and Salon, among many other publications. He grew up in Hyde Park, New York, and now lives in Philadelphia. THE EAGLES OF HEART MOUNTAIN is his first book.
Patti Hirahara, of Anaheim, California, is the last-born descendant of the Hirahara family in the United States, who arrived here in 1907, and is a third-generation photographer. Her family's unique story of how her grandfather George Hirahara built a secret photo darkroom and mini photo studio under his family's barrack apartment 15-9-A in Heart Mountain, Wyoming and produced a collection of over 2,000 photographs is relatively unknown. From 1943 - 1945, George -- and his high school-aged son Frank C. Hirahara -- took and processed what is considered to be the largest private collection of photos taken at this Japanese American incarceration camp. Through the generosity of Patti Hirahara, these photographs are now part of the George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection at the Washington State University Libraries.
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
