WEEK 3 

October 15 - 21

Sunday - October 15

Japanese/Japanese American Mixed Race Adult Affinity Gathering

This is a rare opportunity to explore the nuances of our identities as mixed race people (various backgrounds) of Japanese descent. With the goal of listening and learning from one another, we aim to hold an intentional, non-judgmental, and empathetic virtual space where we can share, connect, and reflect on our broad and complex identities and experiences. During this gathering we will explore the question, "What do you wish others understood about your identity as a mixed race person of Japanese descent?"

* Since this is an adult affinity space- we ask that only people who identify with this specific identity register.

Omoide: Sustaining Our Identities Through Memoir Writing

Have you ever wanted to write your life stories for your family, but had no idea where to begin?

Omoide is an evolving multi-age memoir writing group in Seattle, Washington started by Dee Goto and Ats Kiuchi in 1991. In monthly meetings, writers hone their craft and read their stories to each other. They share and reflect on their Japanese American/Asian American heritage and experiences for deeper understandings. This Omoide presentation covers how the group got started and the format of the sessions, followed by six readers who will read a sampling of their memoirs. You can start your own writing group! Following the readings, there will be Q & A for audience questions.

Tule Lake Survivors and Descendants Speak Out

Due to Tule Lake’s designation as a “segregation center” for “disloyals,” its history has been especially repressed and misunderstood. Now, Tule Lake survivors and descendants are working to unearth family stories, resurrecting this site’s history—and gaining a deeper understanding of what it meant to say “no.” Akemi Johnson will facilitate a conversation with Tamiko Nimura, Kyoko Oda, and Diana Emiko Tsuchida, including a chance for the audience to ask questions.

Monday - October 16

Inquiry Through Graphic Novel Narratives

The JACL DC Chapter will share how we have worked in collaboration with the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland to create a fictional graphic novel based on the life experiences of Japanese Americans focusing on immigration, incarceration, and anti-Asian hate crimes. The graphic novel will incorporate literacy and social studies standards for all Grade 5 students in MCPS and impact approximately 12,000 students annually beginning in April 2024.

Feeling and Folding the Archives: Origami Darkroom Prints of Wartime Incarceration

What does it mean to "feel" a digital archive? How can an artistic practice bring one closer to a digital image? Jon Kriney is a Shin-Sansei artist and researcher based in Philadelphia. Through a practice of printing archival images onto origami forms folded in a lightless color darkroom, they explore the complex feelings that interacting with digitized archives of wartime incarceration gives them. In this presentation they will discuss the origins and process of their work, what drives them to make it, and especially give thanks to those who inspire and fuel it.

Introducing Nikkeijin Illinois

A photographic tour of the exhibition and curator discussion with Jason Finkelman and Rob Buscher.

Nikkeijin Illinois is an exhibition on the Japanese American experience through profiles and stories of students, faculty and staff who have been part of the University of Illinois at Urbana –Champaign. Curated for the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures by Jason Finkelman, himself a Yonsei – fourth generation Japanese American, Nikkeijin Illinois provides a historical overview before, during and after World War II, as well as new insight of the Nisei college experience at the University of Illinois. The exhibition also displays artifacts from and related to the Japanese American Incarceration, anti-Japanese propaganda materials, and a selection of images from “American Peril: Faces of the Enemy”, a portrait series by Justin L. Chiu, in collaboration with Rob Buscher depicting members of the Japanese American and Muslim American communities directly impacted by negative Japanese and Islamophobic propaganda.

The exhibition opened at Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois on February 19, 2023 and closes on December 10, 2023.

For more information: https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/exhibits/profiles/nikkeijin.html

Nikkeijin Illinois gallery image courtesy of The Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

If you would like to share your story, click here.

Tuesday - October 17

Nikkei Writer's Workshop

Many Nikkei want to preserve their family history—stories of their ancestors’ immigration, the struggles they encountered, the obstacles they overcame, the joys they experienced. Unfortunately, writing doesn’t come naturally for many of us who have been raised to quietly keep our heads down and our noses to the grindstone. In this three-part workshop, we tackle the common causes of Nikkei writer’s block, and participants are encouraged to submit material they’ve been working on to receive constructive feedback from the group.

As Fires Destroy Native Hawaiian Archive in Maui, Mutual Aid Efforts are Launched to Help Lahaina

Courtesy of Democracy Now

In Lahaina, the area in west Maui that is of historical importance to Indigenous people, entire neighborhoods were wiped out by this week’s historic wildfires, including the Na 'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center, which had a massive archive that was lost to the flames. We are joined by Noelani Ahia, a Kanaka Maoli activist, who describes the community's reaction to the destruction of Indigenous cultural documents, art and artifacts. “In the blink of an eye, it was burned to the ground, and all of those things were lost,” says Ahia. She also describes mutual aid efforts now underway and notes, “T​he people on the ground know what the community needs.”

APPRECIATION VS. APPROPRIATION - akemi johnson

Courtesy of Yuki and Twin Cities JACL

Akemi Johnson is a writer and the author of Night In the American Village: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa. A former Fulbright scholar to Japan, Akemi has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, NPR’s Code Switch, and other publications. Her current project blends history, memoir, and reportage to tell the story of Tule Lake concentration camp, where the U.S. government incarcerated her family during WWII.

Wednesday - October 18

Finding 'home' at Fort Missoula

Staff from the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula invite you to join us in exploring the stories of the Issei who were among the first taken from their homes after Pearl Harbor. We're in the midst of an exciting project to restore one of the original barracks, and recreate the inner space in a way that reflects the day to day 'home' of the Japanese and Italian men detained at the Fort Missoula Alien Detention Center (DOJ camp). After a brief overview of how Fort Missoula relates to the broader incarceration landscape, we'll show our conceptual drawings of the immersive exhibit, and ask attendees to share their thoughts, questions, and connections to Fort Missoula. We're hoping this will be a collaborative discussion, but are prepared to tell more stories if other folks don't chime in.

Nikkei Rising Book Club

Join the Nikkei Rising Book Club as we explore Ken Mochizuki's graphic novel, Those Who Helped Us.

Japanese Nebraskans-A Unique History

In this session, public historian Stephen Kay will share his journey in finding out about a robust Japanese American community that thrived in Western Nebraska in the early 1900s. He will explore of this unexpected history through archival photographs, a tour of the recently unveiled Japanese of Lincoln County exhibit by its director, Jim Griffin and by reflecting on experiences growing up and living in North Platte, Nebraska. He will be joined by North Platte hometown hero Roy Yanagida who will also reveal the early Japanese Nebraskan experience through the story of his Issei father, Toshio Charles Yanagida who came from Hiroshima, Japan and made a life in Western Nebraska.

For more information on Japanese in Nebraska, click here.

EO 9066: "Voluntary Evacuees"—Yukari's Story

The World War II involuntary incarceration of over 125,000+ people of Japanese descent in the United States is a well-documented part of American history, but have you heard the stories of those who “voluntarily” moved outside of the Exclusion Zone to escape forced incarceration? Yukari Vicky Mikesell and her daughter, Sandra Mikesell Buscher share their talk story conversation in which Yukari reveals her family's heartbreaking departure from their Los Angeles home in the Exclusion Zone to escape the mass incarceration and establish a new life in the unknowns of Utah. Join them for this fascinating history!

Thursday - October 19

Yes, No, Qualify, Refuse to Answer, or Don't Register? - A Comparative Loyalty Questionnaire from Jerome

In early 1943, incarcerees seventeen years old or older at all ten incarceration centers faced the same dilemma: how to answer the "Loyalty Questionnaire" suddenly forced upon them by the US Army and War Relocation Authority. Family 30-SP-108's registration story is shared, with an overall presentation of the circumstances leading up to registration, its execution, the results, and its aftermath.

Our Ancestors Wildest Dreams: A Live YSPN Recording

Join members of Nikkei Rising's Yon-Say Podcast Network (YSPN) in conversation with other young adult leaders in the Japanese American community about what they see as the future of the community. They will share struggles, hopes, and experiences and will also open up for audience Q&A at the end to have a more open dialogue between the generations.

The John Okada Centennial: A celebration of his life and work

Okada biographer Frank Abe will present still-unseen images and stories from Okada’s life, and novelist Shawn Wong will share how he and his friends rediscovered and republished “No-No Boy” in the 1970s, leading to the edition currently available from the University of Washington Press, along with the story of Okada’s unfinished second novel. Karen Maeda Allman, literary agent and former Elliott Bay Book Company bookseller, will moderate the program.

Behind These Bars

Courtesy of Japanese American Museum of Oregon

This 30 minute film viewing is followed by a Q and A led by former Executive Director of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, Lynn Fuchigami Parks and Chisao Hata, the Creative Director of the Living Arts program at JAMO. This short video shares the story of an important artifact at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, Min Yasui’s jail cell. This jail cell is where Minoru Yasui spent 9 months incarcerated for contending the constitutionality of the curfew that was placed on Japanese Americans on the West Coast. Hear more about his story and his role in the Corum Nobis the cases which included Gordon Hirabayashi, and Fred Korematsu. The Medal of Freedom awarded posthumously to Min Yasui in 2016 by President Obama is on display at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon.

Friday - OCTober 20

Meet The Founder of a New Email- and Letter-Based Storytelling Program

The Fudeko Project is a brand-new remote journaling program for Japanese American former incarcerees. On October 20, founder Hana Maruyama will give Tadaima audiences an exclusive glimpse into the program’s inspiration and design. Launching December 1, the program sends participants a few prompts each week via email or letter. They pick one and respond on their schedule from the comfort of their own home. If they’re not feeling up for it, they just skip the week. They hold the copyright to all of their material, with an option to later release some or all responses to the public. Designed to build up comfort with storytelling, the program gradually increases the difficulty of prompts over time and builds in opportunities for social support in participants’ writing journeys by matching them with pen pals if desired, sharing excerpts from other participants, and compiling these works-in-progress so participants can share them with family and friends. At the end of this year-long journey, we send each participant a booklet to commemorate their work.

The Hood River Letters

Courtesy of Japanese American Museum of Oregon

A select look at the more than 500 letters, post cards, telegrams, and newspaper clippings that comprises the publics’ response to the “Hood River Incident”. In November of 1944, American Legion Post 22 of Hood River, Oregon removed the 16 names of Japanese American soldiers from the local Honor Wall as part of a racist attempt to keep Nikkei families from returning to the area after being released from their wartime American concentration camps. While many letter writers stood in support of the Nisei soldiers, others celebrated the removal of the names and pushed Post 22 to go even further.

Stories of Desperation and Hope: Pharmacists Inside and Outside the WWII Japanese-American Camps

John Bonomi was a pharmaceutical distributor for drug wholesaler Brunswig, and detailed the pharmacists and pharmacies in Los Angeles's "Little Tokyo" neighborhood in the 1930s and 1940s. When the pharmacists were forced to liquify their pharmacies and inventories due to Executive Order 9066, and move first to assembly centers and then concentration camps, John Bonomi was in the background, providing support. In this presentation, you will relive the journey of the pharmacists as they established new practices within the camp, and how they maintained their connection with Bonomi, who continued to supply prescription drugs for years when the government failed to provide adequate support of both medications and essential supplies for the camp-based clinics and hospitals. You’ll also take a journey through letters to the pharmacy of Yutaka “Tak” Terasaki and TK Pharmacy in Denver, CO. As the time progressed in the concentration camps, Japanese-Americans found themselves needing prescription drugs, over the counter remedies, and household items, all of which were challenging to source from the camps’ stores. Through minimal advertising and apparently word of mouth, Tak provided many forms of support through the latter part of the war years for those in the camps. These stories were discovered tucked safely away within the walls of the pharmacy, and now you, too, will have a chance to hear the voices of those who survived the hardship from behind the barbed wire of America’s concentration camps.

Saturday - OCTober 21

Yuntaku as a Doorway to Healing and Creative Expression in the Okinawan Diaspora: The Memoirs of Mieko Anne Walden

Join us for a conversation with Mieko Anne Walden as she reads excerpts of her memoir and engages in conversation with Kyle Ikeda, Joyce Tamanaha-Ho, Weston Teruya and Wesley Ueunten. Mieko’s memoir includes memories of Okinawa in the 1960s, sad memories of parting with a grandmother and confused memories of being adopted by an American family that provided material comfort but forced her to give up all of her connections to Okinawa. Using writing as a tool to share her personal story, Mieko has discovered courage and a desire to support others on their journeys.

This live Q&A accompanies a pre-recorded yuntaku session available for viewing here.

Amache Rose Virtual Q&A

Filmmaker Billy Kanaly will join Amache survivor Carlene Tanigoshi Tinker, Amache descendant and professional gardener Greg Kitajima, and archeologist Bonnie Clark for a virtual Q&A, moderated by Tadaima film festival curator Rob Buscher.

Short documentary Amache Rose tells the story of a rose that grows in the high desert of Colorado, where it has no business growing. Planted 80 years ago by incarcerees of the Amache Japanese American incarceration camp.

Billy Kanaly is a filmmaker at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Billy heads up Denver Botanic Films on its mission to connect people to plants, through film.