‘An Evening with Reiko and Mary Francis’ at California Museum

Reiko Nagumo and Mary Francis White (Courtesy of PBS/Blink Films)

SACRAMENTO — “We Meet Again: An Evening with Reiko and Mary Frances” will be presented on Tuesday, March 20, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the California Museum, 1020 O St. in Sacramento.

Museum members are invited to attend a special evening with Reiko Nagumo and Mary Frances White, as featured on the “Children of WWII” episode of the PBS series “We’ll Meet Again” with Ann Curry. Festivities include:

• Special screening of “Children of WWII,” the debut episode of “We’ll Meet Again”

• Q&A with Reiko & Mary Frances moderated by KVIE’s Rob Stewart of “Rob on the Road”

• Tours of “Uprooted! Japanese Americans During WWII“ led by “Time of Remembrance” docents

• Reception with complimentary refreshments

In “We’ll Meet Again,” Curry brings together people whose lives intersected at pivotal moments in history — people who lost touch with each other and haven’t met in decades.

In “Children of WWII,” Reiko Nagumo, who was incarcerated with her family by the government, remembers that her classmate Mary Peters stuck up for her when she was bullied in school.

“Reiko had long thought about a girl she had met 70 years before,” Curry told Parade magazine. “Her yearning, before she dies, is to connect with her so she can thank the girl who changed her life.”

Nagumo was born in Los Angeles in 1934, the youngest of eight children. At the age of 7, she was uprooted with her family and eventually found herself isolated at Wyoming’s Heart Mountain camp for the duration of the war.

They worked hard to rebuild their lives after the war. Nagumo finished elementary school and went on to high school and then college. In 1956, she completed her BS in nursing at UCLA and went on to complete her master’s in nursing.

Nagumo went on to serve as a Foreign Service nurse for the U.S. Department of State in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Cairo, Egypt before returning as a charge nurse to Children’s Hospital of Oakland in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. From 1969 to 1995, she worked for the California Department of Health, first as a health consultant and then as an administrator with California Children’s Services and the Genetically Handicapped Persons Program. Today she is retired and lives in Sacramento. She regularly gives talks to local schools to share her experience of confinement and what we can learn from history.

Flat-rate parking ($3) beginning at 5:30 p.m. in garage located at 1500 10th St.

Limited to 175 members at paid levels and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Register by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 19, using this link to attend using access code provided on member invitation. Not a member? No problem. Join by 5 p.m. on March 19 on the Membership page. For questions or assistance, email membership@californiamuseum.org or call (916) 651-0936 during office hours Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information on the museum, visit www.californiamuseum.org.