Close Close search drawer
Upcoming Events CAMuseum_Icon_Square
Explore This Section
Nav toggle

Northern California Time of Remembrance (NCTOR): Preserving History

Saturday, February 14, 2026 • 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

In observance of the 84th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, the Northern California Time of Remembrance (NCTOR) committee will host its annual Day of Remembrance program in partnership with the California Museum. The 2026 NCTOR event is presented by Florin, Lodi, Placer County and Sacramento JACL Chapters.

This year’s event, “Preserving History,” features Naomi Ostwald Kawamura, the Executive Director of Densho, a Seattle-based nonprofit and digital archive that preserves and shares the history of Japanese American wartime incarceration to promote equity and justice today. Also presenting is Duncan Ryuken Williams, the founder of the Ireichō Project, a national monument that will be onsite at the Museum during the ceremony.*

Doors open at 12:45 PM. Event includes time to view Uprooted: An American Story exhibit and light refreshments. Tickets are $15—or free for college students and persons under 18 years old—and available through NCTOR until February 7 at the link below.

Purchase Tickets

NOTE: Sorry, reservations to stamp the Ireichō at the California Museum are now full and the waitlist is closed. All upcoming Ireichō tour dates are booked, but please check back here for future opportunities to participate.

Speaker Biographies
Naomi Ostwald Kawamura

Naomi Ostwald Kawamura is the Executive Director of Densho, a Seattle-based nonprofit and digital archive that preserves and shares the history of Japanese American wartime incarceration to promote equity and justice today. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of British Columbia, where she teaches a course in museum practice. Her work with Japanese American and Japanese Canadian communities brings a comparative perspective to remembrance, redress, and reconciliation. Her current work examines how digital preservation and storytelling can confront historical erasure and strengthen democratic participation in an age of misinformation.

Duncan Ryuken Williams

Duncan Ryuken Williams is the founder of the Ireichō Project, the Alton Brooks Professor of Religion, and Director of the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at the University of Southern California. He has been ordained since 1993 as a Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition. He served as the Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. His most recent project is the building of the Irei Names Monument, a memorial to honor those of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in America’s internment and concentration camps during WWII.