Time of Remembrance

A Story of Two Wars…

History is dynamic, with new chapters being created as new events – local, national, and global – occur and impact the lives of ordinary citizens. Accordingly, this website is the second iteration of the Time of Remembrance Oral Histories Project.

WORLD WAR II
The original project focused solely on a World War II event: the mass removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the onset of War War II. Literally overnight, an entire population was denied the rights guaranteed to all citizens under the U.S. Constitution, and the history of the Elk Grove-Florin community was forever changed. Few would return to reclaim their farms, businesses, or former lives. The 16-minute documentary below provides a window into a time in our nation’s history when justice failed – and, more importantly,  a reminder of the need to constantly strive for a “more perfect union.”

VIETNAM WAR
Seventy years after WWII, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the district recognizes the need to actively respond to AB 78 by documenting and honoring individuals who have witnessed first-hand and/or whose lives have been directly impacted by what has come to be known as the Secret War in Laos. During the Vietnam War and amid fears that Communism was spreading from North Vietnam into Laos, The United States sent the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) into Laos to disrupt the spread. Over 40,000 Hmong and Mien were covertly recruited to fight in the Secret War. It was the largest CIA operation ever undertaken. Hundreds of thousands of Laotian civilians were killed in the fighting or in retaliation for their support of American troops.

The 4-minute introduction video below provides a glimpse of the depth and breadth of a chapter of the Vietnam War still widely under told. Clips used in the video were drawn mainly from the first and second rounds of our Vietnam War Oral Histories interviews.