Press Release
July 22, 2025
Contact: CJ Budy
Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, Oklahoma Historical Society
Office: 580-237-1907
[email protected]
csrhc.org
Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center Hosting “Memories of Injustice” Lecture With Sam Mihara
ENID, Okla. — The Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center is proud to host guest speaker, historian, and educator Sam Mihara from 7:30-9 p.m. on Friday, August 8, as part of the center’s “Museum After Dark” series.
Mihara will deliver his lecture “Memories of Injustice” about the history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II and his personal experiences as a prisoner at a U.S. relocation camp near Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
When he was just nine years old, Mihara and his family were forcibly moved from their home in San Francisco to the Heart Mountain, Wyoming, prison camp following the outbreak of World War II. They were placed in a 20-by-20-foot barrack, where they lived for the next three years, much like many other U.S.-born American citizens of Japanese descent. Mihara’s family was one of the 120,000 west coast residents spread across 10 camps in the United States. After the war ended, the Mihara family returned to San Francisco, where Sam attended high school. Sam then enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley and later UCLA, earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering. He used those degrees to become an executive on space programs for the Boeing Company until his retirement.
Upon retiring, Mihara has been calling on his experiences to become a speaker and educate the public on the mass injustice in the U.S. His public speaking has taken him to many federal prisons and immigrant detention facilities, schools, libraries, the United States Department of Justice, Congress and other organizations across the U.S., Asia and Europe where he has given over 450 speeches. He also assists in the preservation of the Heart Mountain historic prison site where he spent three years of his young life. He has been a board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation since 2014 and is a member of the Japanese American Citizens League, South East Los Angeles and North Orange County (SELANOCO) Chapter.
Sam Mihara’s presentation will be featured in conjunction with the “Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy” exhibit that will be on display in the J. E. & L. E. Mabee Foundation Gallery of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center through August 30.
The cost for this “Museum After Dark” event is the regular cost of admission. For more information about the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, please visit csrhc.org or call 580-237-1907.
The Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center is a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society. The mission of the Oklahoma Historical Society is to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people. Founded in 1893 by members of the Territorial Press Association, the OHS maintains museums, historic sites and affiliates across the state. Through its research archives, exhibits, educational programs and publications, the OHS chronicles the rich history of Oklahoma. For more information about the OHS, please visit okhistory.org.
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Editor’s Note: Photos of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center are available upon request.
