WEEK 4: A QUESTION OF LOYALTY

week four schedule

FILMS OF THE WEEK

SUNDAY - july 5, 2020

Elder panel: Ma-ke-na-i-de (do not lose)

Courtesy of Japanese American National Museum

June Aochi-Berk, Barbara Keimi, and Masako Iwawaki Koga-Murakami have volunteered at the Japanese American National Museum for a combined total of almost 100 years.  Their dedication and service helps keep the museum running, yet we don’t always know their own stories.  In this video the volunteers share their experiences of growing up and the impact America's concentration camps had on their families.

SUNDAY SUPPER VIRTUAL POTLUCK: WEENIES ROYALE AND OTHER CAMP RECIPES

Courtesy of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC/the Center)

(No video)  

This virtual potluck was a special Tadaima! 2020 edition of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California's “Community Kitchen Virtual Potluck program.”  Some of our most poignant memories include taste and smell.  Accordingly, we learned how to make “Weenies Royale,” a dish served in the camp mess halls.  Afterwards, participants engaged in a community discussion to share memories and stories of foods and meals in the camps.

Participants were provided with the recipe and instructional YouTube videos in advance.  They were also asked to prepare the dish (or other dishes from the camps of your choosing) in advance so that they could share the meal virtually with everyone during the discussion. The main discussion was hosted by Haruka Roudebush, Senior Programs Manager at the Center along with members of the Community Kitchen volunteer committee. Haruka also serves as the national Vice President of 1,000 Club, Membership and Services of the JACL.

the japanese american confinement sites grant program

Courtesy of the National Park Service

Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program (Public Law 109-441, 120 Stat. 3288) for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. The law authorized up to $38 million for the entire life of the grant program to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire historic confinement sites in order that present and future generations may learn and gain inspiration from these sites and that these sites will demonstrate the nation’s commitment to equal justice under the law. 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grants are awarded to preserve and interpret U.S. Confinement Sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Grants are awarded to organizations and entities working to preserve historic Japanese American confinement sites and their history, including: private nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and state, local, and tribal governments, and other public entities. Grants will be awarded through a competitive process and require a 2:1 Federal to non-Federal match ($2 Federal to $1 non-Federal match). The minimum grant request is $5,000.

monday - july 6, 2020

museum monday: Janm’s common ground exhibition design tour

Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum

Common Ground 360 is an immersive video experience that allows you to view our core exhibition in 360°. All you need is a smartphone or VR glasses and move the phone or headset to pan and tilt to watch from different angles. You can also view this on a desktop computer and use your mouse to click and drag on the video to pan and tilt to watch from different angles.

Common Ground: The Heart of Community - Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents, and photographs collected by the Japanese American National Museum, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, beginning with the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present. The exhibition design was a collaboration between JANM exhibition staff and Ulises Diaz from ADOBE LA, which is an arts collective of architects and designers including Gustavo Leclerc, Laura Alvarez and Barbara Jones. They have created inter-disciplinary artworks about the immigrant experience for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Criminal Justice Building, and various sites on the border between the U.S.A. and Mexico.

COMMUNITY ARCHIVE

This is a space to share photos, stories, artifacts, and memories from your family, your community, and your own life. Click HERE to enter.

tuesday - july 7, 2020

more than a question of loyalty

Courtesy of Dr. Cherstin M. Lyon

The “Loyalty Questionnaire” generated more questions than those on its pages and sparked protest.  This form was designed to resolve ambiguities about Nisei dual citizenship and was central to recruiting efforts for the newly created volunteer, racially segregated, all-Nisei combat team. However, the form was also co-opted by the War Relocation Authority to facilitate the gradual relocation of all Nikkei from the camps. But the “Loyalty Questionnaire” in the context of the camps created confusion.  This was a document that was created for the military for one specific service, but it was applied to all adult Nikkei.  At first the “Loyalty Questionnaire” was applied to all without modification.

Questions 27 and 28 on the “Loyalty Questionnaire” are, of course, infamous, but there were more issues below the surface of those questions.  Reactions to the form included broad-based resistance to the recruitment of Nisei for military service in segregated units while their citizenship rights remained suspended. In response to the “Loyalty Questionnaire,” Issei, Kibei, and Nisei protested their lack of rights in the camps, the threat to their rights of privacy and free speech, and in the case of Issei, their rights to citizenship. 

Click here to read from her book, Prisons and Patriots: Japanese American Wartime Citizenship.

DETAINMENT ON ANGEL ISLAND DURING WWII

Courtesy of Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Angel Island is widely known for being a U. S. immigration station from 1910-1940.  But during the first part of World War II Angel Island also housed a Temporary Detention Center.  The facility briefly housed about 700 Japanese "enemy aliens" from Hawai`i and the West Coast before they went to Department of Justice and U.S. Army camps throughout the country.  Prisoners were scattered throughout the country in camps even as far away as Missoula, Montana, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. This short video presents the Angel Island incarcerees and facilities. A tour of the immigration barracks that later housed the detainees in 1942-43 is also included in this presentation from parks interpreter Casey Dexter-Lee.

Wednesday - july 8, 2020

Military intelligence service language school: Nisei Linguists at Fort Snelling

Courtesy of Historic Fort Snelling, Minnesota Historical Society

Explore what life before deployment was like for thousands of Nisei servicemen and women at the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Fort Snelling, Minnesota before deployment. From 1944 to 1946 about 6,000 Nisei served in the northern post. Many of the newly enlisted or drafted men and women came from incarceration camps. Minnesota was quite far from their homes on the West Coast and Hawaii. These men and women trained for six to nine months before working overseas as linguists. Get a glimpse of their experiences through historic photographs and learn about their lasting legacy.

prejudice & patriotism & mis historic learning center virtual tour

Courtesy of National Japanese American Historical Society

The Military Intelligence Service Language School was formed in the Presidio area of San Francisco, California before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Nikkei students were classified into groups according to their facility with the Japanese language.  Some students were learning Japanese for the first time and studied alongside Caucasian students.  After Executive Order 9066 was issued, the school was moved to Minnesota.  Today, the aircraft hangar that housed the original school, is a museum.

the question of loyalty and patriotism: the internment of Japanese american Priestesses at honouliuli

Courtesy of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

The U. S. military did not have the resources to remove Japanese Americans from Hawai’i to the camps on the mainland.  Instead, martial law was established and many community leaders were arrested then sent to the Honouliuli camp.  Jo Ann Sakaguchi of the Hawaiʻi at Mānoa presents the stories of two of these community leaders.  Both were born in Hawai’i and therefore had the right as U. S. citizens to practice their respective religions.  Nonetheless, the two priestesses were incarcerated specifically because they were religious leaders in the Japanese American community.  This video presents the stories of Buddhist priestess Ryuto Tsuda and Shinto priestess Haruko Takahashi.

thursday - july 9, 2020

Densho GENEALOGY SESSION-More US records (Immigration and Naturalization)
link available at 1:00 pm Pacific Time

Courtesy of Densho

Have you always wondered when your ancestors first immigrated? Did you know that Japanese immigrants and their Nisei children often traveled back to Japan to visit relatives, maintain businesses, or to be educated. Learn how to search a variety of immigration records in this session, beginning with passenger manifests and moving on to Immigration Investigative Case Files, A-files and more.

ONE ON ONE GENEALOGY CONSULTATIONS

Brought to you by California Genealogical Society, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, NPS and JAMP

Space is limited. Consultations will be scheduled for Thursdays from June 18 - August 13. Each session will be 20 minutes, so preparation is key!

#DEARANCESTORS

By Brynn Saito

Week 4: A Question of Loyalty

Prompt: Letters to Photographs. Some of the letters I wrote for the “Dear—” project began with photographs. This letter, to my grandfather, was inspired by his image. In it, I wonder about his time in the Military Intelligence Services; I wonder how he thought about loyalty, service, resistance, and freedom. Find a photograph—perhaps a photo of someone who has passed on—and write a letter to the photograph. Begin with description then let your imagination take over. What feelings and questions does the image spark in you?

friday - july 10, 2020

saturday - july 11, 2020

japanese american incarceration on indigenous lands

Courtesy of Densho

Japanese American WWII incarceration -- like all of American history -- unfolded on occupied Indigenous land. This panel delves into these historical intersections at the Poston, Gila River, and Heart Mountain concentration camps, as well as the Leupp detention facility. Indigenous scholars and community members/leaders/representatives will share their perspectives on how to acknowledge and commemorate these complex histories, while also strengthening relationships between Japanese American survivors and descendents and the nations who still call these sites home.