WEEK 9: RECONCILIATION & IDENTITY

week nine schedule

FILMS OF THE WEEK

SUNDAY - august 9, 2020

Civil Liberties Act of 1988: Keeping America’s Promise

Courtesy of Go For Broke Foundation

This is a virtual program on the Japanese American redress movement and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.  The unprecedented legislation marked the strength of the U.S. government in admitting a grave wrong in incarcerating approximately 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during WWII.  The establishment of redress payments both acknowledged and atoned for one of the most egregious government violations of the Constitution. The program includes an overview of the redress movement by Maki followed by a Q&A discussion with Maki and Staci Toji, a member of GFBNEC’s Board of Directors.

alaska native memories of the japanese american incarceration

A small group of Alaska Natives were held at Minidoka Incarceration Camp and other sites during World War II - some due to their mixed Japanese ancestry and others due to their familial ties to Japanese individuals. Segregated from the larger community, Alaska Natives and their families experienced the war quite differently than the dominant Japanese/Japanese Americans. Join us as Sho interviews Paulette Moreno and Rhonda Ozawa about their family's experience and to learn more about this crucial perspective that helps us to rethink the incarceration experience and build solidarity across Indigenous/settler community lines. Poster by Kayla Isomura.

amache field school: amache kids search for their past

Courtesy of the DU Amache Field School

Find out what it was like for former incarcerees of Amache to participate in Bonnie Clark's Field School. With Dana Ogo Shew, April Kamp-Whittaker and panelists Carlene Tanigoshi Tinker, Gary Ono and Dennis Fujita.

Additional resources:

Issei to Gosei Interview Project

Granada Pioneer Newspaper

Gary Ono for Discover Nikkei

Sunday Supper - Ozoni and Oshogatsu Traditions 

Courtesy of JACL Chicago and Friends of Minidoka

It's Oshogatsu in August! We are going to talk about how our Oshogatsu traditions have been handed down, how this celebration has shaped our Japanese American identity, and the ways that we, as Yonsei (and friends), have made these traditions our own. We want to acknowledge the time and place from which this tradition was started, but we also want to reflect on the way that our Oshogatsu has been enhanced by the way it has been reinterpreted and reimagined over time and by the new meanings that are found generation by generation.

monday - august 10, 2020

CONFINEMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO DURING WORLD WAR II

Courtesy of New Mexico Japanese American Citizens League

With a National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites grant, NM JACL's Confinement in Land of Enchantment, Japanese Americans in New Mexico during World War II (CLOE) project produced a traveling multimedia exhibit.  This was shared at various museums and libraries in 2018 and 2019.  The traveling program also included a series of community forums with survivors, descendants of those incarcerated, and history scholars.   The project chronicled the experience of 6000 Japanese Americans who were detained in government camps in Santa Fe, Lordsburg, Fort Stanton, and Baca (Old Raton Ranch).

The poster displays that made up the traveling exhibit are provided for viewing.  The exhibit display text, photos, memoirs, letters, art works, artifacts, and maps were drawn from the total CLOE project..  Other project products included historic markers, oral history interviews, outreach publication, prisoner roster, and website / story map.

The program website / story journal is provided for viewing by connecting on below link.  It contains text, photos, maps, oral interviews, and other project materials for each of the 4 CLOE sites.  It also includes the prisoner roster that was complied principally from information at National Archives and Records Administration.

The Tule Lake Jail Restoration Project

Courtesy of the National Park Service

After the loyalty questionnaire, Tule Lake became a segregation center in June 1943. Security increased to include a battalion of 1,000 military police and with the construction of an additional twenty-two more guard towers. The peak population of Tule Lake was 18,789 people, although the prison camp was built for 15,000. Construction of the jail began in the fall of 1944 and was completed in February of 1945. The jail was operational for approximately seven months and held hundreds of prisons, many who did not commit a crime or were charged with one.

This 360-tour of the jail is led by Jessica Reid, Chief of Cultural Resources at Tule Lake National Monument, who will tell you about the restoration project.

COMMUNITY ARCHIVES

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 - august 11, 2020

National Japanese Memorial to Patriotism During World War II

Courtesy of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation

The National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF) is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Japanese Americans during World War II (WWII) by honoring their heroic military service and patriotism while educating the public of their unjust incarceration and sacrifices.  The National Japanese Memorial to Patriotism During World War II was dedicated on November 15, 2000, in Washington DC within sight of the nation's Capitol Building.  NJAMF strives to remind the public that what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II must not happen again to any other group, regardless of race, religion or national origin, and to remind the American people that great nations can also admit and redress great mistakes.  

Exploring Identities: The Nikkei LGBTQ+ Experience

Courtesy of Okaeri

Okaeri is a group of LGBTQ+-identified Nikkei, supportive family members and allies.  Our mission is to create visibility, compassionate spaces, and transformation for LGBTQ+ Nikkei and our families by sharing our stories and providing culturally-rooted support, education, community-building and advocacy. Since 2014, Okaeri has hosted large biennial national gatherings at the Japanese American National Museum.  We had planned to host another conference this Fall.  Given the COVID-19 pandemic, however, we're postponing that gathering until sometime in 2021.  In the meantime, we're producing online programs for our community.

Stay connected on Instagram (https://instagram.com/okaeri_la) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OkaeriLA/)

Wednesday - august 12, 2020

Nikkei Australian Identity

Courtesy of Tim Steains

This presentation explores the unique cultural and contextual factors that shape Japanese, or Nikkei, Australian identity. It makes an argument for the politicised use of the term 'Nikkei' despite its lack of uptake in the Australian context. Drawing on Asian Australian studies, the paper raises questions about the purpose and efficacy of this kind of identity project in Australia. These questions are raised through an exploration of the experiences of the mixed race former internee Mary Nakashiba, the artwork of Mayu Kanamori, and the findings from a recent survey of young Nikkei Australians conducted by Christine Piper.

Getting to Know the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium

Courtesy of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium

Learn about the genesis and accomplishments of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium (JACSC). JACSC is comprised of organizations committed to collectively preserving, protecting, and interpreting the history of the World War II experiences of Japanese Americans and elevating the related social justice lessons that inform current issues today. Members include the ten War Relocation Authority confinement sites, as well as historical organizations, endowments, museums, commissions, and educational institutes. 

Reconciliation: JACL, Draft Resisters, and Tule Lake Incarcerees

Courtesy of the Japanese American Citizens League

As a part of the Tadaima! A Virtual Pilgrimage Series, hosted by NPS and the Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages, we look back at the history of the incarceration and the ways in which it tore our community apart. Specifically, the history of the draft resisters and Tule Lake incarcerees, who were ostracized from the larger Japanese American community in part by the actions of the JACL.

In the years since, the JACL has apologized for its actions during the war, to the draft resisters in 2002 and recently the Tule Lake Incarcerees in 2019. But there is still a struggle to reconcile the past 75 years of division between and make things right for everyone. In this discussion, Executive Director, David Inoue sits down with former national president and ED, Floyd Mori; Seattle JACL president and member of the Tule Lake Committee, Stan Shikuma; and Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, Shirley Ann Higuchi, to discuss the schism that existed in the Japanese American Community, and the moves being made to right another wrong.

None of Us are Free Until All of Us Are Free

Courtesy of the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee

The panelists--a Haitian immigrant, a child of Indian immigrants and a descendant of incarcerated Japanese Americans, respectively--discuss how they each came to abolition work. The discussion will cover what the words abolition and defunding mean in practical terms and why solidarity during this uprising for Black lives is--and has always been--vital. The speakers will also share pressing issues within communities they serve and practical things that individuals can do to be a part of this liberation work.

Haitian Bridge Alliance, Inc. https://haitianbridge.org/

Black Immigrants Bail Fund https://www.blackimmigrantsbailfund.com/

Detention Watch Network https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/take-action

Tsuru for Solidarity https://tsuruforsolidarity.org/

La Resistencia http://laresistencianw.org/

Navigating Intersectionalities of Mixed Race

Courtesy of Curtiss Takada Rooks

Curtiss Takada Rooks discusses how we can navigate and engage our increasing diversity in society. Curtiss Takada Rooks was born in Japan, but moved around quite a lot during his childhood. He's lived in many states, including Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. He went to Dartmouth College to earn his BA's in Asian studies and economics, earned an MA in public policy studies at Trinity College, and an MA in comparative culture at the University of California Irvine. He is an educator and has had several coaching and dean positions. His mom is the biggest role model. As a military wife, she was essentially a "single mother", raising her two sons in her non-native culture. She taught him many values, including courage, persistence and generosity. His students have always served as an inspiration to him, and have created the desire to talk about the topic of being mixed-race. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

thursday - august 13, 2020

Densho Rebroadcast-Writing your family history
link available at 1:00 pm pacific time

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!

Teaching WWII Japanese American Incarceration through Film and Fred Korematsu

Courtesy of The Fred T. Korematsu Institute

Fred Korematsu was an ordinary person who took an extraordinary stand, from his U.S. Supreme Court case that questioned the constitutionality of the JA incarceration through his continued activism for civil liberties. Hear about his life story from his daughter, Karen, and learn more about the Fred T. Korematsu Institute’s education and advocacy work to advance racial equity, social justice, and human rights for all. We’ll share new activities including, PBS Learning Media resources designed by K-12 educators for teachers and parents to use with students in grades 4-12 that explore the relevance of the WWII JA incarceration, as well as present-day issues, such as current immigration policies, confronting racism, and what it means to be an American citizen. This work and program made possible by a grant from NPS/JACS.

#DEARANCESTORS

By Brynn Saito

Week 9: Intergenerational Trauma, Reconciliatory History, Nikkei Identities

Prompt: Imagining Future Ancestors. Write a letter to someone in the future—an unborn daughter, the next generation, your future great grandson. You are a future ancestor; what do you want your descendants to know? What do you want to say about this moment? What memories or knowledges do you want them to carry? What must be released?

An Interview with Marsha Edwards 

Courtesy of Mary Tyson and the Community Library

The interview with Marsha Edwards was recorded in Ketchum, Idaho, on August 7, 2020, outside The Community Library for the Tadaima! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage. It is also in conjunction with an extended exhibit currently on display at the Library, “The Bitter and Sweet: World War II Stories of Japanese Americans in the West.” Marsha Edwards’ story of her family’s experience at Minidoka is one of five display cases of Japanese American family stories which make up the exhibition.

friday - august 14, 2020

Crystal City Camp Story: What happened to internees of war in an American Concentration Camp during World War II

Courtesy of the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee

A memoir written and Illustrated by Sat Ichikawa

When World War II broke out in December 1941, Japanese families and their American-born children were sent to concentration camps in remote areas of the United States. Sat Ichikawa’s father was the Rinban -- or head minister -- of the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple. He was therefore considered a ‘dangerous’ community leader and was picked up by the FBI in March of 1942. He was sent to remote prison camps in Montana, Louisiana and New Mexico. The rest of the Ichikawa family was forcibly removed to the Puyallup Assembly Center, then to Minidoka Relocation Center in southern Idaho. Sat’s story recalls his teenage memories of the final two years of the war when his family was reunited behind barbed wire at the Crystal City Camp.

Book Club - Thank You Very Mochi live reading with daniel yaguchi

Courtesy of Kizuna and Friends of Minidoka

When Kimi and her family visit Grandma and Grandpa’s house for New Year’s mochitsuki, they discover the mochi-machine is broken. After initial fears that mochitsuki will be canceled, Grandpa proposes an interesting, yet old-fashioned solution to making mochi the hand-pounded way. Join Kizuna’s very own Daniel Yaguchi in reading Thank You Very Mochi, to learn how Japanese Americans have practiced the tradition of mochitsuki for generations.

Book Club: New Stories of the Incarceration: in conversation with authors Traci Chee, Kimiko Guthrie, and Kiku Hughes

Courtesy of Friends of Minidoka 

From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei,  second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II. 

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco. 

Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted. 

Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps. 

In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.

Traci Chee is the New York Times bestselling author of The Reader Trilogy and We Are Not Free (HMH, September 2020). An all-around word geek, she loves book arts and art books, poetry and paper crafts, though she also dabbles at egg painting, bonsai gardening, and hosting game nights for family and friends. She studied literature and creative writing at UC Santa Cruz and earned a master of arts degree from San Francisco State University. Traci grew up in a small town with more cows than people, and now feels most at home in the mountains, scaling switchbacks and happening upon hidden highland lakes. She lives in California with her fast dog.

Block Seventeen is about a woman who is haunted by her family’s mostly unspoken experiences in a Japanese American incarceration camp during WWII, and explores the intergenerational effects of racism and unwarranted surveillance. It’s also a love story and a re-telling of an old Japanese myth. 

Akiko ''Jane'' Thompson, a half Japanese, half Caucasian woman in her midthirties, is attempting to forge a quietly happy life in the Bay Area with her fiance, Shiro. But after a bizarre car accident, things begin to unravel. An intruder ransacks their apartment but takes nothing, leaving behind only cryptic traces of his or her presence. Shiro, obsessed with government surveillance, risks their security in a plot to expose the misdeeds of his employer, the TSA. Jane's mother has seemingly disappeared, her existence only apparent online. Jane wants to ignore these worrisome disturbances until a cry from the past robs her of all peace, forcing her to uncover a long-buried family secret. As Jane searches for her mother, she confronts her family's fraught history in America. She learns how they survived the incarceration of Japanese Americans, and how fear and humiliation can drive a person to commit desperate acts. In melodic and suspenseful prose, Guthrie leads the reader to and from the past, through an unreliable present, and, inescapably, toward a shocking revelation. Block Seventeen, at times charming and light, at others disturbing and disorienting, explores how fear of the ''other'' continues to shape our supposedly more enlightened times.

Kimiko Guthrie grew up in Berkeley, California, dancing like her mother and writing like her father. She teaches dance and theater at CSU East Bay and is the co-artistic director of Dandelion Dancetheater. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA in Choreography from Mills College. Kimiko has worked with many Bay Area-based dance companies, including Asian American Dance Performances and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. BLOCK SEVENTEEN, inspired by her experience growing up with a mother who was incarcerated in an internment camp during WWII, is her debut novel.

A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Displacement, a historical graphic novel from Kiku Hughes.

Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated to during World War II.

These displacements keep occurring until Kiku finds herself "stuck" back in time. Living alongside her young grandmother and other Japanese-American citizens in internment camps, Kiku gets the education she never received in history class. She witnesses the lives of Japanese-Americans who were denied their civil liberties and suffered greatly, but managed to cultivate community and commit acts of resistance in order to survive.

Kiku Hughes weaves a riveting, bittersweet tale that highlights the intergenerational impact and power of memory.

Kiku Hughes is a mixed Yonsei cartoonist and illustrator based in the Seattle area. Her work has been featured in Beyond Anthology volumes 1 and 2, Short Box #6 and the Alloy Anthology. She creates stories about identity, queer romance and compassionate sci-fi. Displacement is her first graphic novel, and it is a story she's wanted to share for as long as she can remember.

saturday - august 15, 2020

in search of incarcerated okinawans: a conversation on decolonizing japanese america

When discussing the wartime incarceration sites, we speak almost exclusively of Japanese Americans. This works to erase the fact that there were also a significant number of individuals Okinawan descent who were incarcerated. While some Okinawans may prefer to identify as Japanese American, this must be understood in a context where Okinawans were navigating anti-Asian racism from the United States government as well as anti-Okinawan racism from the larger Japanese community. The camps, along with many other sites across time and space, have been places where Okinawans have had to fight double colonialism at the hands of both Japanese and American nationalisms.

After doing basic research I found that there was little to no information about the experiences of Okinawans as a collective in the incarceration sites. This conversation will attempt to conjure our Okinawan ancestors and give space for them to live and breathe in their full complexity - acknowledging this means navigating many omissions and silences.

Furthermore, as Okinawans come to terms with their colonized status within a Japanese context, this ancestral strength might help us to better understand our personal complicity in the violent mechanisms of Japanese American settler colonialism that continue to impede on and do harm to the Indigenous Nations upon which we have settled and developed our lives. How can we use our stories to help us confront our ongoing role as settlers on this continent? How might we stand in better solidarity with the Indigenous communities whose land we are actively colonizing?

This program will include poetry by Sho and a sanshin performance by Joseph Kamiya.

Poster by Joseph Kamiya featuring art by Okinawan Kibei-Nisei Hideo Kobashigawa

A Right to Petition for Redress of Grievances – why Japanese Americans should support HR40 and reparations for slavery

Courtesy of San Jose Nikkei Resisters

Although HR 40 – The Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans Act – has been re-introduced in Congress every year since the late Rep. John Conyers initiated it in 1989, it’s only recently that it has achieved nation-wide attention.  With the publication of TaNehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” in the Atlantic and the endorsement of HR40 by a number of Democratic Party presidential candidates in 2019, reparations for slavery and its aftermath are now in the public mind.

Discussions of redress/reparations frequently cite the 1988 Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the redress legislation that contained an acknowledgement, apology, and token compensation for the forced removal and indefinite detention of Japanese Americans during WWII.  This is not unexpected:  the fight for Japanese American redress was a part of the larger struggle against white supremacy and unequal justice that has been the institutional basis of this country since its founding.

This panel will explore the historical context for HR 40 as well as some discussion of why Japanese Americans should contribute our support.

web premiere of garage door opener by soji kashiwagi

Courtesy of Soji Kashiwagi, Grateful Crane Ensemble and Tule Lake Committee

Just the mention of a "Japanese American Dysfunctional Play" has brought smiles and laughter from Baby Boomer Sansei who grew up in a uniquely JA family environment.

Why is this so? What is it about growing up Sansei and family dysfunction that brings immediate recognition from those who were there to experience it?

These questions and more will be addressed in Soji Kashiwagi's new comedy/drama, "Garage Door Opener." In the play, we meet Glenn and Sharon Tanaka, a Sansei brother and sister
faced with the daunting task of cleaning out their parent's garage and house after they passed away.

As they sift through dozens of empty tofu containers, kamaboko boards and broccoli rubber bands, Glenn and Sharon begin to uncover items from their past that they knew nothing about, and in the process, begin to gain a better understanding of their parents-and themselves-by the items their mom and dad left behind.

With special guests—The Minidoka Swing Band.