It’s been the final resting place for some members of the local Japanese community since the early 1900s but the Historic Japanese Cemetery in Oxnard was the target of vandalism over the years and fell into disrepair.
"This historic cemetery was essentially abandoned," explains Lily Anne Tamai, the co-president of the Ventura County Japanese American Citizens League. She says the cemetery, which has around 200 burial plots, started out as a form of discrimination - and the restoration, which has taken years, is a way to honor the memory of those buried there.
"It wasn't just physically that they were racially segregated. It's that the people who were buried here also paid five times the amount that people who are being buried at the Masonic victory were paying," she said of the history of the site.
The Rededication Ceremony takes place at the cemetery on the corner of Etting Road and Pleasant Valley Road in Oxnard on Saturday September 21st at 10am. Parking is available at Oceanview Junior High School, followed by a lunch at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center.
