Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain
and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration
We at ToTAL are honored to invite Ms. Shirley Ann Higuchi, Chair of Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation* to hold an online lecture from Washington D.C. about her leadership origin story on Friday, December 3, 2021.
*Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation was established in 2011 to preserve and memorialize the Heart Mountain World War II Japanese American Confinement Site in Wyoming, USA.
Ms. Higuchi will share the arc of her origin story from growing up in a predominantly black and white community in Ann Arbor, Michigan; getting her law degree from Georgetown Law in Washington, DC; working at a high powered Washington DC law firm; to the crisis and surprise of her mother’s deathbed wish and her pivotal moment visiting the place of her parents’ WWII incarceration at Heart Mountain.
She now chairs the foundation that runs the only privately owned former WWII incarceration site and bridges the communities of Cody, Wyoming and the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated there during WWII. She will share her evolution and strategies as a leader and activist in the Japanese American community and underscoring the importance of knowing one’s own personal family history in order to step boldly into the future.
Sign up from below and save the date!
Ms. Shirley Ann Higuchi
●Date and time: December 3, 2021 (Friday) 8:30pm-10pm
●Method: Online（Zoom）
●Eligibility: Tokyo Tech students, faculty and staff and the general public
●Language: English
●SIGN UP HERE: https://forms.gle/XEnper48UvcQBVHEA
●Trailer of Ms.Higuchi’s book “Setsuko’s Secret”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1if20d_ll8
(Music “Violin Tsunami” by Kaoru Ishibashi
Reference: https://www.kishibashi.com/about, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlXwpaAVoJQ )
●About Ms. Shirley Ann Higuchi:
Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD, Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF), is the daughter of former incarcerees, Dr. William I. Higuchi and the late Setsuko Saito Higuchi. It was not until her mother was on her deathbed in 2005 that Shirley would inspire to take on her mother’s dream of “having something built there” and chronicle the story in her book, Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration. This is the story of Shirley’s journey.
In addition to her work with Heart Mountain, Shirley currently leads the legal advocacy office of the American Psychological Association. Follow her on Twitter: @HiguchiJD See where to buy the book and how to join upcoming events at: setsukossecret.com
●About Heart Mountain WWII Japanese American Confinement Site: https://www.heartmountain.org/
