Keep the day off, change the name.

I'm a Japanese American person living in Rhode Island and I'm sick of having an official state holiday called "Victory Over Japan Day" (or "Victory Day"). Rhode Island is the only U.S. state to still have this holiday. There's been several attempts to change the name. It's now 2020 -- this year, we took down the Columbus statue in Providence; we're taking out "Providence Plantations" from Rhode Island's official name. 2020 is the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. Can we change the holiday name already?

Short version: This letter from a Japanese American woman in RI covers all the points. You can get more perspectives, posters and info at loisharada.com​ (2020 activities here). Spread the word on social media with #RenameVictoryDay. Read this Providence Journal editorial or support a parallel petition.

Long version: What does keeping the holiday name do, besides contribute to more racism against Japanese Americans and Asian Americans. Asian Americans have been part of American history since the 1700's (JACL). (Newport, RI has historic ties with sister city Shimoda in Japan.) Despite this, Asian Americans are routinely othered and written out of the American narrative. The U.S. threw Japanese Americans into incarceration camps in the 1940s (Densho.org) and tried to erase or minimize this in history books. (It wasn't until middle school that I even learned about the camps.) Since the 2020 pandemic started, Asian Americans and Black people have experienced increased racism and hate crimes (Pew Research Center)​ (Stop AAPI Hate). I was scared to wear a mask initially for this reason, too, in March 2020 -- while living in Rhode Island.

"Victory Over Japan Day is a Rhode Island Holiday!"

I didn't learn about "Victory Day" until I moved to Rhode Island. But there is an August date that I grew up knowing: August 6, 8:15am. Hiroshima, 1945. When the U.S. dropped the first of two nuclear bombs on civilian populations in Japan. 200,000 people killed from the blast or from radiation poisoning. Three days later, a second nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and more than 70,000 people were killed. (CNN) Trauma for generations, affecting Japanese people and Japanese Americans (Hibakusha, a comic).

"Victory Over Japan Day is a Rhode Island Holiday!"

Actually, most Rhode Island people can't even say the holiday name to my Japanese American face. "Victory... uh... VJ day... um.." they mumble. "I just call it Fun Beach Day," says another. People don’t want to use the name -- change it already.

What are some alternative names? Rhode Island is the Ocean State -- call the holiday "Ocean Day". Calamari is our official State Appetizer, Quahog is our official State Shell (RI.gov). Or how about “Remembrance Day”. Other suggestions, from the earlier links, include: "Rhode Island Heritage Day", "Beautiful Rhode Island Day", “Quahog Day” “Lobster Roll Day”. There’s many options.

There's a lot of systemic change we could do, regarding how Japanese Americans and Asian Americans are treated in the U.S. (Model Minority Myth, anyone?) But changing the state holiday name is a gimmie that should have happened years ago. Maybe this year, maybe on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, maybe the middle of a wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans, maybe in the midst of a historic movement with BLM and recognizing racism and examining who we are as a country -- we can change the name of a state holiday based on "Victory Over Japan Day". I believe in us. We can do it.

Rhode Island residents: besides signing this petition, you can also sign this parallel petition and directly contact your RI Representatives (list) or RI Senators (list).

Share this petition: www.change.org/ChangeRIHolidayName