WEEK 6: RESETTLEMENT

week six schedule

FILMS OF THE WEEK

SUNDAY - july 19, 2020

Blossoms and Thorns: A Community Uprooted Film Screening and Q&A

Courtesy of the Contra Costa Japanese American Citizens League and the National Park Service

The documentary film Blossoms and Thorns: A Community Uprooted reveals the contradictions between these two experiences of wartime Richmond by bringing Japanese Americans into the frame to tell their stories. A powerful documentary film by Ken Kokka, about the WWII experiences of Japanese American flower growers in Richmond, California, this film covers the experience of Richmond's Japanese American citizens who were incarcerated during the Second World War.

Tabemasho! Let's Eat: A history of japanese food in america with Author Gil Asakawa

Courtesy of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California

The journey of Japanese food in America has been the story of an immigrant cuisine that adapted to a new land, much like how Japanese people came to the US and had to adapt. It was originally food for families, and newcomers. Like the community, the cuisine was put on hold during the wartime incarceration. In the postwar years, Japanese food was slowly accepted because American troops were introduced to some dishes, but the familiarity was limited to just a couple of main dishes: Sukiyaki and Tempura. Sushi was “gross” and “weird” well into the 1980s. Today, though Japanese food is so common that you can buy sushi — not necessarily good sushi, but still… — at supermarkets across the US. Join Gil Asakawa, who’s writing a history of Japanese food in America, “Tabemasho! Let’s Eat!” for a tasty discussion.

monday - july 20, 2020

the making of contested histories

Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum

Allen Hendershott Eaton’s historic 1952 book, Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps, explored art and craft objects created by persons of Japanese ancestry while wrongfully incarcerated in World War II American concentration camps. It was one of the first books to examine any aspect of the lives of the 120,000 inmates. In the course of conducting research for the book and a never-realized exhibition of camp artifacts, Eaton amassed a significant personal collection of such artifacts.

After many years of lying forgotten in storage, the collection was inherited by a family friend of Eaton’s, who in April 2015 attempted to put it up for auction. An outcry arose from Japanese American community leaders and activists, who rallied successfully to stop the insensitive sale of these important artifacts of Japanese American history. Ultimately, the collection was transferred to the Japanese American National Museum for safekeeping.

unboxed: how to handle and store artifacts

Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum

Kristen Hayashi, PhD, the Director of Collections Management and Access and a curator at the Japanese American National Museum, delves into how collections staff handles and stores three-dimensional artifacts within the museum's permanent collection. Proper object handling and storage are the first steps to ensuring long term preservation of artifacts. As keeper of your family treasures, you can incorporate these basic best practices into care for your own artifact collection.

UNBOXED: The Story of Citizen USA with Jamie Henricks and Shawn Iwaoka

Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum

Following the path of an artifact's history is rarely straightforward -- research avenues can take you to unexpected places! In 2002, a short manuscript of life in Manzanar as seen through the eyes of a young girl, called "Citizen USA," was donated to JANM. In 2019, in preparing for the manuscript's publication, collections staff began to research the artifact's background. Join collections staff members Jamie Henricks and Shawn Iwaoka as they explore they uncover the story behind the manuscript: “Citizen USA.”

"Citizen USA" is available at the JANM Store: https://janmstore.com/products/citize...

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 21, 2020

Mikami family history

Courtesy of Mikami Vineyards

Since 1896, when the first generation of the family emigrated from Japan to California, the Mikami family has produced premium wine grapes.  With three generations of experience, Mikami Vineyards’ extensive knowledge of the soil and climate of the Lodi appellation has translated into the production of exceptional quality wine.

The grape growing tradition of the Mikami family has been interrupted only once – during World War II when the family was relocated into internment camps in Rowher, Arkansas. In 1945, the family returned to Lodi with a renewed passion for grape farming and continued to be a part of the wine business, supplying premium grapes to various California wineries.

In the late 1960’s, the family turned its focus on the vineyard site where the current family home is located.  Much of the vineyard was managed single-handedly by the late Jim Mikami, with nearly all aspects (field management, pruning, irrigation) done solely by the second generation Mikami.

Now in the family’s second century of farming, Mikami Vineyards produces single vineyard, hand crafted wines from the premier blocks of the family vineyard estate.

bonsai at camp amache: Art as solace & creative outlet

Courtesy of the Pacific Bonsai Museum

During the years of incarceration, many of the imprisoned turned to cultural arts to occupy their time, explore the heritage for which they had been demonized, and find a temporary escape. The Amache camp in Granada, CO, was the smallest of all the camps yet held a significant number of bonsai artists, notably Toichi and Kaneji Domoto, Sam Doi (1880–1953), Morihei Furuya (1873–1971), and Frank Nagata (1890–1980).

Prior to the war, Doi taught bonsai to Furuya and Nagata, both of whom managed to bring a few bonsai from their collections with them to Amache. Nagata and Furuya tended their small collection of bonsai and mounted a display in the camp, one of the few bonsai exhibits to take place anywhere during World War II. Following their release, Doi, Furuya, and Nagata returned to Los Angeles. John Naka, (later considered the “father of American bonsai”) heard about the trio and eventually started practicing bonsai with them, forming what would become the California Bonsai Association. Nagata opened his own bonsai nursery in 1954, where he became one of the first to offer bonsai lessons in English with the help of his daughter Kay and son-in-law Kahn Komai.

Bainbridge Island Gardens

Courtesy of the National Park Service

Over 100 years ago, the Harui family started Bainbridge Gardens, which became a central part of island life before World War II. During the family’s exclusion from Bainbridge, the gardens and buildings fell into a state of disrepair, and the Issei who built the gardens struggled to rebuild the business after the war. This week, we visit with Donna Harui to learn of the history of the gardens, the Harui family, and of Junkoh Harui, her father and the man who rebuilt this Bainbridge Island landmark.

Wednesday - july 22, 2020

Returning to California: Post Camp Stories

Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum

Regarded as “worse than camp” by many, the immediate post-incarceration period is often overlooked in Japanese American history, and not much has been produced looking at this time. The war had ended, but returning families faced continued hostility and backlash. Purposely excluded from the booming post-war economy through discriminatory housing policies and a less than friendly job market all while reeling from the psychological after-effects of their wartime ordeal, these Japanese Americans struggled to remake their lives in mid-century America. Featuring JANM Director of CMA and Curator Kristen Hayashi and Densho Content Director Brian Niiya.

resistance at tule lake: director, konrad aderer, and former incarceree. hiroshi shimizu

Erin Aoyama, Doctoral Student in History at Brown University, moderates a conversation with Resistance at Tule Lake filmmaker Konrad Aderer and Hiroshi Shimizu, who as a child was incarcerated at Topaz, Tule Lake, and Crystal City. Hiroshi's father, Iwao Shimizu, was a leader in the Tule Lake community who got involved to negotiate with the camp administration and was arrested and imprisoned in the Tule Lake stockade. In this deep conversation Hiroshi shares memories and pictures of his family's journey through different detention sites after his parents renounced their U.S. citizenship. Konrad and Hiroshi discuss the making of this PBS documentary, the activism of the Japanese American community today, and ongoing projects.

thursday - july 23, 2020

The Art of Movement and Coalition Building: Learning from Yuri Kochiyama with Nobuko Miyamoto, Tomie Arai, Kai Williams and moderated by Karen Ishizuka

Courtesy of Smithsonian Folklife Festival

This discussion centers on the inspiring force of activist Yuri Kochiyama (1921–2014), whose work to build community and solidarity across racial and generational lines in the decades after World War II is a timely model for today’s movement building and efforts toward meaningful allyship. In the 1960s, the Harlem apartment of Yuri and Bill Kochiyama was a hub of community service and social justice mobilization. During her sixty years of activism, Yuri was involved in Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, the Republic of New Africa, Puerto Rican nationalism, Japanese American redress and reparations, and countless actions supporting human rights. Dr. Karen L. Ishizuka, writer and chief curator at the Japanese American National Museum, moderates a discussion about Yuri’s life, influence, and legacies with singer-songwriter Nobuko Miyamoto, public artist Tomie Arai, and writer Kai Naima Williams.

Densho Rebroadcast-Military records
link available at 1:00 pM pacific time

Courtesy of Densho

Many Nikkei registered for the draft in WWI and WII. Some of them served. During this session, we will cover how to go about finding US military records for your ancestors. 

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 6: Resettlement

Prompt: Eternal Returns. Write a letter to someone who has returned home after years of confinement. This could be someone specific in your family, an elder, or a grandparent who has passed on. This could be a returning citizen, someone formerly incarcerated who is making a new life for themselves. What do you want them to know? What do you want to say? Say it, from your heart.

friday - july 24, 2020

artists as witness: three seattle issei artists | kenjiro nomura

Courtesy of Barbara Johns

Kenjiro Nomura’s paintings of the Puyallup and Minidoka confinement sites may be familiar as the cover illustrations of several books about the incarceration. A sign-painter by profession, Nomura was the best-known and most widely exhibiting Issei artist in Seattle before the war. Incarcerated in wartime, he became a sign-painter in the camps and recorded his personal experience in nearly one hundred paintings and drawings. Art historian Barbara Johns draws upon research for her forthcoming book about Nomura to describe the full range of his accomplishment.

Building History 3.0: Interactive Learning-At-Home (Session 1)

Courtesy of Building History 3.0

a conversation with lawrence matsuda

Courtesy of the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee

My Name is Not Viola, explores one person’s attempt to live a dignified life in spite of historic and institutional racism and hate.

Artist talk with kristine aono

Kristine Aono is a sculptor and installation artist who uses a wide variety of materials to explore themes of personal narrative and history. Her art tells stories of her family’s Japanese-American experience and cultural, racial, and social issues that reflect both historical events and present day circumstances. Input and interaction with communities is often an integral component of her artwork.

saturday july 25, 2020

Art, Transformation and the Moving Body

Bay Area-based choreographers Debby Kajiyama, Claudine Naganuma, and June Watanabe will share excerpts of their dance works and discuss their artistic visions and processes. The three veteran choreographers, while quite different from one another in terms of aesthetic and style, have each built powerful bodies of work exploring intersections of identity, race, power, community, and the moving, expressive body. The discussion will be moderated by choreographer and author Kimiko Guthrie.

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