Rev. Michael Yoshii

Reverend Michael Yoshii is a co-chair for Friends of Wadi Foquin and a retired pastor of the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, California. The church was founded in 1898 to minister to newly arriving immigrants from Japan and for many years was a center of activity for the Japanese American Christian community in Alameda. During World War II, Japanese Americans were directed to mass incarceration through Executive Order 9066 issued by President Roosevelt. Most Buena Vista church members were interned at Topaz, Utah, one of the ten concentration camps set up during the war to detain Japanese Americans. Worship services were suspended for the duration of the war. On August 10, 1988, the Civil Liberties Act was passed apologizing to Japanese Americans for the violation of their civil rights during the war.