February 19, 1942: President Roosevelt signs the executive order to place Japanese Americans in internment camps.
Andy Munemitsu, a character in Lost in the Light, was named in honor of the Munemitsu family who leased their farm to Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez before the Japanese-American internment. The Mendez family took care of the property until the Mumemitsu’s were released after the war. The two families united when Gonzalo and Felicitas took on the local school districts in the historic case, Mendez v. Westminster and ended segregation in California public schools.
Here’s a story about their connection: http://blogs.chapman.edu/happenings/2010/05/10/munemitsu-unveiling-today-at-leatherby-libraries/
