Week 3

September 12-18, 2021

schedule

sunday - september 12

Shin Nikkei & WWII incarceration

Courtesy of JCCCNC

For families of Shin Nikkei, those of Japanese descent who did not emigrate from Japan until after WWII, the dominant narrative of the Japanese American community’s wartime incarceration is not one that immediately speaks to their own experience. These varied historical experiences and legacies remain rooted and linked by common Japanese ancestry, yet the perspective of Shin Nikkei when considering how the collective experiences help define the Japanese American community adds yet another facet to what it means to be Nikkei. Join us for a Tadaima community small group discussion on Zoom to share your own experiences and understanding of the cultural and community identities of Shin Nikkei folks, regardless of what generation you may identify as. Shin Nikkei are especially encouraged to participate and share!

The Japanese Mexican relocation program during WWII

Japanese immigrants in Mexico received orders to abandon their homes in the borderlands and coastal zones during WWII. Important rights acquired through birth, naturalization, or legal residency were cancelled through Mexico’s Japanese relocation program. Furthermore, whether “free” or interned in camps in Mexico in the United States, people of Japanese descent often endured family separation and the loss of access to dignified means of support. The official narratives deny their mistreatment. Carrie Oyama shares her family’s story and Dr. Selfa Chew-Melendez speaks about the JM Relocation Program. This video closes with their reflections and discussion.

finding each other again
zoom small group discussion
(NOT RECORDED)

*PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WAS A CLOSED SPACE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE OKINAWAN ANCESTORS AFFECTED BY WARTIME REMOVAL/INCARCERATION*

"Finding Each Other Again" was hosted by Ako and Sho. This gathering was a closed space for those with Okinawan ancestry who have been affected by World War II incarceration.  Attendees connected, shared stories and discussed their roles within larger nikkei/japanese diasporic communities. Because of the effects of ongoing US and Japanese imperialism we recognize that gathering and speaking existence to the depth and beauty of our lineages has been difficult and at times impossible. We recognize that many individuals have complicated relationships with their Okinawan ancestors and may not have had the chance or know how to connect to wider Okinawan communities and histories.  This is totally fine and we welcome you into this space exactly as you are. This event was part of Tadaima 2021, Japanese American Pilgrimage Programming. Poster artwork is by São Paulo based Uchinaanchu artist Hiromi Toma (https://www.hiromitoma.com/). Poster design is by Los Angeles based Uchinaanchu artist Joseph Kamiya.

A Bitter Legacy: The Untold Story of American Concentration Camps

“A Bitter Legacy” is an award-winning feature documentary about the WWII American Concentration camps, where more than 122,000 Nikkei were imprisoned. The documentary also highlights the relatively unknown Citizen Isolation Centers. Rosalyn Tonai, Executive Director of the National Japanese Historical Society, discusses the film with director Claudia Katayanagi and contributor Arthur Hansen, Professor Emeritus of History and Asian American Studies at California State University, Fullerton. “A Bitter Legacy” is distributed by Gravitas Ventures and is available on 8 different streaming sites including YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Xbox and Gravitas Ventures.

Unfit for a Queen: Eugenics and Hawaiian Education in Territorial Hawai'i

Courtesy of Iolani Palace | 1 hr, 25 min

Between 1907 and World War II, a number of eugenics initiatives were introduced in Hawaii. Learn more about how these measures helped assimilate Native Hawaiians and other non-whites to American norms while stabilizing control of the new oligarchy in the first decades of US occupation. The discussion took place at the Kanaina Building at Iolani Palace on November 21, 2018. Ilima Long is a doctoral student in the Political Science program at University of Hawaii at Manoa. She works at Native Hawaiian Student Services, where she builds programming to support the NHSS mission and prepare students to contribute to life-affirming and de-occupied future in Hawaii.

monday - september 13

Transforming Oral Histories: Harnessing the Power of Chicago's Japanese American Voices

The Japanese American Service Committee and the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society collaborated with using oral histories to build two interactive web experiences, “Uprooted,” and “Reckoning.” These interactive web experiences are designed for secondary-school level education and teach Japanese American history through a distinctively modern lens. Project lead and former WBEZ producer Katherine Nagasawa demonstrated the two web experiences and outlined the process of moving from raw oral history interviews to engaging, multimedia educational tools. Join us to learn more about the Japanese American resettlement and experiences in Chicago. See what it took to transform JASC’s oral history collection. You will come away with a better understanding of why this educational resource is especially relevant in Illinois and across the country today.

I Feel With My Heart: The Story of Fernando Sosa Masuda

Courtesy of Go For Broke National Education Center | 23 min

Watch GFBNEC's premiere online episode of its new series, Sharing Stories Around the Table, which examines the significance and influence of the Japanese American WWII veterans’ story from an intergenerational and multi-ethnic perspective. This first episode, “I Feel with My Heart,” centers on the unique life story of Fernando Sosa Masuda, a Japanese-Mexican American WWII veteran who served in the segregated Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Hear his detailed post-war recollection of growing up in East L.A., discovering his Japanese ethnicity and trying to fit in while his Japanese American unit buddies were trying to figure him out. Host Maya Hernandez, a Japanese-Mexican American who grew up in all corners of the U.S. and in Japan, and who was also a part of the 2018 Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Queen Program Court, is joined by special guest Mia Lopez, a Japanese-Mexican American from Southern California and a First Princess on the 2019 Nisei Week Court. GFBNEC President and CEO Mitch Maki will join in the conversation as Maya and Mia delve into the shared experiences of bi-cultural identity within their own Japanese and Mexican American families. Check GFBNEC’s other videos and visit www.goforbroke.org for more information about its educational programming and ways to support the legacy of the Japanese American WWII veterans. Images and video provided courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection, Library of Congress, National Archives & Records Administration, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Signal Corps, Jason Kusagaya, David Ono, Pat Rothrock, Mike Terashita and the GFBNEC Collection. Production by Janice Tanaka and Sreescanda Video Special Effects by Travis Hatfield

National WWII Museum Japanese American Experiences in WWII Electronic Field Trip

Courtesy of National WWII Museum | 1 hr, 12 min

Take your home or classroom on a journey with student reporters based in California and Louisiana as they gather the stories of Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from the West Coast after the United States’ entrance into World War II. Review the difficult decision of young Nisei men to serve their country even as their country turned its back on them, uprooting their lives and the lives of their families. Understand the critical legacy of the preservation of the confinement sites and their stories—and the lasting reminder that democratic principles are often fragile in the face of war. At the heart of the program will be an interview between Amy Mass, who was incarcerated at Heart Mountain as a child, and her grandson Ryo. Interwoven with Amy’s firsthand testimony will be a visit to The National WWII Museum for an up-close look at primary sources and artifacts, and an interview with Baton Rouge resident Walter Imahara, who was incarcerated at Rowher and Jerome, Arkansas, as a boy.

E Ola Koa: Sharing Stories of Hawaiian Warriors

Courtesy of Pacific Historic Parks | 1 hr, 4 min

Listen to University of Hawai‘i professors Ty Kāwika Tengan and Noelle Kahanu “talk story” about Hawaiians in the military and those who served America during World War II. Tengan has researched and published extensively on Hawaiian veterans, while Kahanu created a documentary Under A Jarvis Moon, about Native Hawaiians who colonized a handful of Equatorial Islands in the 1930s and 40s.

Tuesday - september 14

Sites of Shame discovery session

Courtesy of Densho

Join us for a virtual tour of Densho’s new Sites of Shame! This innovative new mapping tool from Densho gives users an unprecedented view of the landscapes and dislocations of WWII incarceration. Sites of Shame combines the latest scholarship on WWII incarceration history, data gathered by the US government during WWII, and original research by the Densho team. The new platform maps out nearly 100 sites where Japanese Americans were detained and illustrates the population flows into and out of those sites.

Densho Executive Director Tom Ikeda will open the session with brief comments about how this new platform fits in with Densho’s 25-year mission to find innovative ways to document the history of WWII incarceration. Then the site's co-creators, Densho's Deputy Director Geoff Froh and Content Director Brian Niiya, will walk you through the site's virtual features and give you insider tips for exploring your own family histories. They will also talk about the research and design process, and will leave plenty of time for questions from the audience!

Writing Workshop with Alden Hayashi: Session 2 getting down to basics
zoom small group discussion

The first decision you need to make is which audience you want to target. Which readers do you want to reach? That decision will help you answer a number of other major questions. What medium would serve as the best vehicle for reaching those readers? Should you write non-fiction (a memoir, for instance) or fiction based on autobiographical events? What perspective should you use (first-person narrative, third person, or something else). What’s your story’s “through line”? In other words, what is the theme, general plot, or recurring idea, image, or other motif that will hold your story together?

When can we go back to america? - Author talk with Susan kamei

Courtesy of Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California

Join us for an online author talk presented by Susan H. Kamei, author of the new book, When Can We Go Back to America?: Voices of Japanese American IIncarceration During World War II (Simon & Schuster 2021).

In Susan’s book the voices of children, teenagers, and young adult US Citizens illuminate the frightening reality and enduring tragedy of this dark period in American history.  Through their stories you will confront how and why this large-scale, unconstitutional, racially-based occurred in a country founded on the principles of justice and freedom.

Susan’s family was among those who were incarcerated.  Susan’s mother and Susan’s maternal grandparents were imprisoned at the Santa Anita  Assembly Center in Arcadia, California, and then at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming. Her father and his siblings, parents, and grandparents spent the war years in the Poston II Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona.

Decades later, Susan was a volunteer leader in the campaign for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which acknowledged these wrongful actions and provided token reparation payments to the survivors of the wartime detention. Susan is committed to educating the public about this shameful episode in our country’s history.  She is also continuing in her dedication to creating greater awareness of why our civil liberties need to be protected now more than ever.

wednesday - september 15

Boogie Woogie To Barbed Wire

Courtesy of Rusty Frank | 55 min

In this 55 minute presentation, professional dancer and preservationist Rusty Frank takes us on a journey through one of the most troubling times in Japanese American history, but through a very different lens of resilience and joy. Her acquaintance with Camp survivors, June Aochi Berk and Takayo Tsubouchi Fischer (who became life-long friends when they were both interned in the Rohwer, Arkansas Concentration Camp during WWII) revealed the story of how parents did everything possible to “normalize” the lives of their children with education, sports, art, culture, AND Swing music and dance. The program features a brief history of the Camps, rare photos of Camp dances, a private collection of Camp Dance Cards, as well as an interview with June and Takayo about their personal experiences.

World War Bonsai: Remembrance & Resilience

Courtesy of Pacific Bonsai Museum and Bonsai Mirai | 8 min

Pacific Bonsai Museum’s special exhibition for 2020 and 2021, World War Bonsai: Remembrance & Resilience, traces the cultural practice of bonsai in location and time—in Japan and in the United States, from the pre-war WWII period, through wartime, amid incarceration, and at peace. With bonsai, artifacts, documents, and photographs, the exhibition shares the little-known stories of the people who ingeniously and courageously cared for bonsai, shared their art, and spurred a flourishing, global practice despite overwhelming hardships. In this short documentary, Mirai visits the exhibit and speaks with museum curator Aarin Packard, and featured exhibit artist, Erin Shigaki to go deeper into the intention and perspectives behind their work, as well as the importance of continuing to confront the realities and residual damage of Japanese American incarceration during WWII. Learn more about this often overlooked and under told part of bonsai history at: https://pacificbonsaimuseum.org/on-vi... What kind of ancestor do you want to be?

Oregon Japanese American WWII Veterans’ Stamp Dedication

Courtesy of Japanese American Museum of Oregon | 52 min

Our dedication will unveil the US Postal Service stamp that honors Nisei veterans of World War II. The program will include former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski as Honorary Chair. Tributes will include four generations of Japanese Americans and feature vignettes of Oregon Nisei military service portrayed by Oregon Asian Americans

Cultural Property, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, and Western Intellectual Property Systems

Courtesy of Iolani Palace | 1 hr 17 min

Indigenous peoples are protecting their heritage and traditional knowledge from misappropriation and exploitation by working within Western intellectual property regimes, the same regimes that often fail to recognize Indigenous peoples' interests in their cultural property. Barron Oda is Co-Chair of the ABA's Section of Science & Technology Law's Museum's and the Arts Law Committee. His practice areas include governance, art, entertainment, museum, cultural property, and intellectual property law. He has taught intellectual property and constitutional law at the Hawaii Pacific University.

THURSDAY - september 16

Exiled to Motown

You know about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. What do you know about what happened next? Join us for a conversation about resettlement in metro Detroit, and the ways that Japanese Americans forged their homes in the Motor City. This brief presentation is followed by a Q&A session. The book Exiled to Motown: a Community History of Japanese Americans in Detroit and its companion exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum both draw on oral histories conducted by the Detroit JACL History Project Committee as well as archival photographs, documents, and family heirlooms lent by community members. Exiled to Motown sheds light on a little-known but critical piece of history and history in-the-making.  Exiled to Motown  includes history from the Ford Motor Company, World War II, and the murder of Vincent Chin.  The book and exhibit also highlights the ongoing processes of building solidarity in the Midwest and beyond.

A Converstation with Goh Nakamura

Join Tadaima film festival curator Rob Buscher in conversation with indie rock musician and actor Goh Nakamura as they discuss Goh’s career in film and music. Topics include his starring role as a romantic lead in the “Surrogate Valentine” trilogy and Goh’s inspiration behind the “Dragon Painter” soundtrack.

Disabilities in the Camps

Courtesy of Selena Moon | 33 min

Several thousand people with disabilities were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans and their families incarcerated during World War II.  Many became disabled in camp.  Most camps offered educational programs for disabled children and adults.  These classes were taught by Caucasian teachers and fellow disabled incarcerees. This presentation focuses on the lives and education of people with disabilities in the camp and their fight for redress and disability rights.

Hawaii Storytellers: Incarceration - Kameha'ililani Waiau

Courtesy of Honolulu Civil Beat | 15 min

Lani shares her experience visiting her father at Oahu Prison as a child, which was a highlight as her week because she got to share new hula and mele with her father and play with other children while they waited in the courtyard. Now, as a principal of Ke Kula o Samuel Kamakau, a Hawaiian language school in Kaneohe, she notices the kolohe (rascal) kids, who could have possibly been her dad, always find their way into her classroom.

Friday - september 17

Japanese American Perspectives in Allyship, Stewardship, and Community Empowerment in Historic Preservation

This panel discussion provides Japanese American perspectives in historic preservation work, particularly on the importance of allyship, stewardship, and community empowerment. This preservation work in historic neighborhoods and confinement sites includes landmark designations, arts and humanities work, community development, and advocacy. Tune in to learn about various historic preservation-related projects and how the panelists work with the dynamics of allyship, stewardship, and empowerment in their work.

More Than Just Asian Americans: Embracing Our Many Japanese American Identities
zoom small group discussion
(past - not recorded)

We provided an exclusively Japanese American virtual space to explore and celebrate many facets of the Japanese American experiences and identities. This session provided several topics and exercises for small group discussions.  We held space for participants to share their Japanese American experiences and identities.  Our groups explored different factors which shape how we see ourselves:

• Concentration camp survivors and their descendants

• Younger generations and previous generations

• Native speakers and those who are not fluent in Japanese

• Raised in the East Coast, West Coast, or Hawaii

• Living in the city or in a rural community

This exploration helped participants to understand the perspectives everyone brings to the conversation of race in the U.S. and beyond.

This space was reserved only for people who identify as Japanese American. This session was not recorded in order to facilitate sharing in safe space.

Artists in Conversation: Emily Momohara & Jon Yamashiro

Photographers Jon Yamashiro and Emily Hanako Momohara discuss photographing WWII Japanese American Incarceration Camps as a medium for sharing the legacy of the incarceration experience. Yamashiro’s images often include his children. His photography expresses a highly personal narrative by asking questions about communal generational trauma and highlighting the legacy held within the land. Yamashiro’s work has been exhibited widely including in the traveling exhibition, “And Then They Came For Me.”

saturday - september 18

WE HEREBY REFUSE: The Next Generation

The graphic novel We Hereby Refuse presents the stories of three Nisei who refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps without a fight. In this panel discussion for Tadaima! we’ll meet their children: Jim Akutsu’s son Phillip, Mitsuye Endo’s daughter Wendy, and Hiroshi Kashiwagi’s son Soji. We will see their reactions to the characterization of their parents.

food Production, Consumption and Resistance among Japanese Americans Incarcerated by the U.S. Government during World War II

The incarcerees' resistance was a driving force in the power struggles centered around the production and consumption of food in the camps. Dr. Paula I. Fujiwara shows us three intertwined themes within these power dynamics. The primary theme was the relationship between the inmates and the WRA officials responsible for their care. Secondly, the physical layout of the camps and the WRA’s economic and political policies caused a shift in the balance of power between Issei parents and their Nisei children. Thirdly, WRA administrators gave decision-making authority to American-born citizen inmates, which caused a struggle between that group and the Japanese-born and/or educated cohort who did most of the menial kitchen work for producing daily meals for the camp residents. Dr. Fujiwara based her presentation on work published by the 2019 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, “Food and Power.”

Talk Story: WWII and Incarceration Stories of Hawai’i

In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i was placed under martial law and many prominent Japanese Americans were wrongfully incarcerated. Dr. Kyle Kajihiro, Dr. Adam Miyashiro, Sensei Eric Wada, and sisters Elsie and Betty share their family stories, and discuss the unique ways these histories played out in Hawai’i. Our distinguished panelists come from many walks of life and each hold unique insights into this complex history. This panel discussion provides us a broad understanding of WWII and incarceration history in Hawai’i, and highlights the lessons we can carry with us in the future.