The play
tells the story of Gordon Hirabayashi, a nisei Japanese American who
defied the US government's curfew and evacuation orders. Instead of reporting for evacuation to an "assembly center", he turned himself in to the FBI and was arrested and
convicted. Hirabayashi appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court
(Hirabayashi v. United States) where the order was upheld. In the 1980s
his convictions were finally overturned by the U.S. District Court in
Seattle and the Federal Appeals Court after misconduct in the solicitor
general's office was discovered.
Boston-based Michael Hisamoto stars as Gordon Hirabayashi. In the spring, he will be playing Mike Masaoka in SpeakEasy Stage Company's upcoming run of Allegiance (May 4 - June 2, 2018). Although Hold These Truths is ostensibly a one-person show, the play borrows the kabuki method known as kuroko (黒子, also romanized as "kurogo") which uses stage crew dressed in black who assist in set changes and moving of props during the performance and who may also play minor roles.
The New England chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is hosting an outing to see HoldTheseTruths this Sunday, December 17th at 3pm. Dr. Paul Watanabe, Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, will lead a post-show discussion as JACL members share stories of their families' experiences during WWII. There are still a few tickets available for Sunday's performance. If you can't make it this Sunday, the play runs through the end of the month.
Hold These Truths
Directed by Benny Sato Ambush
Choreography by Jubilith Moore
Featuring Michael Hisamoto*, with Khloe Alice Lin, Gary Thomas Ng*, Samantha Richert*
Approximately 100 minutes with no intermission
Told through flashbacks, Hirabayashi takes us through his early life, challenging the curfew and exclusion orders in 1942. In a virtuosic turn, Hisamoto portrays not only Hirabayashi, but also his parents, college friends, lawyers, military leaders, Supreme Court justices, Hopi Indians he meets in prison, and the Arizona prison boss who can't figure out why he has hitchhiked down the California coast for his own imprisonment. His storytelling is assisted by a trio of kurogo — traditional Japanese stage hands — choreographed by Jubilith Moore and directed by Benny Sato Ambush.
He may have lost his case when he was alive, but Hirabayashi, a Quaker ("God is in each heart, not in a church") and a University of Washington student who was active in the YMCA leadership training program, was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by President Barack Obama. Paving the way to Hirabayashi's ultimate victory, legal historian Peter Irons discovered myriad military documents, letters, and memos admitting that confining Japanese Americans to camps had not been a necessary security measure: The camps, they implied, were created out of hysteria and racism. Full of theatricality and humanity, Hold These Truths celebrates resistance and offers startling parallels for contemporary politics.
Dates
Friday, December 1 - Sunday, December 31, 2017
See website for details.
Admission Tickets range from $25-$73 and if you use the coupon
code BAAFF (via the Boston Asian American Film Festival) it will get you
$20 off per ticket. (FYI, I've heard some reports of some people having difficulty with the code.)
Lyric Stage also offers $10 cash student rush tickets. See website for details.
It seems I’m a bit behind on Boston ramen news. I went to Pikaichi for lunch on Friday and found out that they are closing on Sunday, December 17th. 😢 They announced the closing on their Facebook page and website just before Thanksgiving. Apparently the landlord raised the rent significantly and owner Taka Akatsu decided that he could no longer stay at the Super 88 location.
"We recently received a notice of a major rent increase from the
landlord. After careful consideration, we have discovered that we won’t
be able to sustain our business with the increased rent."
Taka-san and his wife, Ritsuko-san, opened Pikaichi in March 2011 after selling Café Mami in Porter Square to Carlos Garcia (who now also co-owns Ittoku, Wafu-Ya, and Yume Ga Aru Kara) and buying Ken's Ramen House from Ken Kojima. Pikaichi's menu has gone through a few changes over the years but the ramen has remained largely the same and their prices have remained comparatively low for Boston ramen, making it a popular spot for college students and homesick Japanese expats. They're also the only ramenya in Boston to have free parking which has made it a lot easier for people to come from all over to the area to eat there.
In an era in which Japanese restaurants in the US have largely dispensed with yelling「 いっらしゃいませ ! 」 ("irrashaimase"), the standard greeting at all businesses in Japan, Pikaichi brought that tradition back and requires all staff to learn some basic ramenya Japanese to communicate with each other about how many customers are in the house and what dishes have been ordered and entered into the POS system. Although the layout of the space is more like a restaurant than a ramenya, the friend who first recommended Pikaichi to me told me that she felt like she had stepped into Japan for the brief time she was there. Their staff are uncharacteristically welcoming and cheerful compared with the bored indifference of waitstaff at many other Boston area Asian restaurants. Long-time employees know the regular customers if not by name, then definitely by face, although they work hard to make everyone feel welcome.
Staff told me that the hope is to reopen at another location within a few months but no word on where. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a restaurant opening that went smoothly – construction and permitting issues can cause delays – so I expect it will be a while before we can have Pikaichi ramen and curry again.
Pikaichi's farewell message to customers
If you’re able to stop by before the last day, keep in mind that wait times are likely to be longer than usual. Make sure to put your name on the list that is on the clipboard just inside the door. I’ve been going for lunch at 1pm with friends for a while and we usually don’t have much of a wait but yesterday we waited for quite a while. The staff told me they have been very busy since the closing was announced. If you can afford it, please consider tipping generously. The closing was completely unexpected so many staff may not have any idea what they will be doing for work during the closure, which comes just before the holidays. Some of them are long-time employees of Pikaichi.
Pikaichi's hours for the last 2 weeks at Allston location
Pikaichi's last day will be Sunday, December 17th, serving lunch only from 11:30am - 4:00pm. You can follow them on Facebook or check their website for updates on the new location.
Parking
Parking around MIT is very challenging so if you can take the T you should. There are some two hour metered parking spaces on Vassar St. and nearby streets. The nearest parking garages are in Kendall Square.
[The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere] (ESPN)
Directed by Mickey Duzyj. 2016. USA. 19min.
In
2003, Japan was plunged into economic darkness, and people needed a ray
of hope. They found one in Haru Urara, a racehorse with a pink Hello
Kitty mask and a career-long losing streak.
[Wasabi]
Directed by Bunji Sotoyama. 2016. Japan. 29min.
Aoi
is a high school student living with her father, Kazuo, who suffers
from depression. Kazuo is unable to run his sushi restaurant due to his
illness, leaving Aoi no choice but to succeed her father to save the
restaurant. She turns to a magical baseball pitch to find her fate.
[Complex x Complex]
Directed by Miyuki Fukuda 2015 Japan. 24min.
Eighth
grader Yui longs to be a grown-up. She considers armpit hair the symbol
of adulthood, so her classmate Takeo—who has the thickest underarm hair
in the class—becomes her idol. Is it love? A coming-of-age story about
puberty, love, and halting conversation.
[I & Myself]
Directed by Hisanori Tsukuda. 2017. Japan. 5min.
Mizuho
came to Tokyo to make her dream a reality, but things have not been
going well for her. She finds herself thinking, "What did I come to
Tokyo for ... ?" Depressed and on her way home one day, she is stopped
by a lady, who, to her astonishment, is another version of herself.
[Sociopaths]
Directed by A.T.. 2015. Japan. 6min.
A girl encounters an android on the street. Unnerved by the experience,
she decides to follow the android to give it a "message.”
[Post X years later]
Directed by Hideaki Ito. 2015. Japan. 86 min.
In the aftermath of WW2 the Bikini Atoll was used by the United States as a testing ground for Nuclear and Thermonuclear technology until 1957. In 1954 the largest test - the detonation of a Hydrogen bomb in Operation Castle Bravo - resulted in a significant amount of fallout that impacted inhabited areas. Among the exposed in the incident was the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru with a crew of 23, who at the time was outside of the "danger zone" declared by the US Government. While history has documented the plight of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, the reality is many other boats also outside the "danger zone" were similarly exposed. Now 59 years later, a documentary crew in Japan revisits the incident and interviews surviving fishermen, including some from other Japanese boats in the area, to bring to light an ordeal whose full impact has been kept in the dark by both the US and Japan governments.
The 9th annual Boston Asian American Film Festival runs from October 19th to the 22rd. Three Four films in this year's festival have Japanese American themes. I'm very excited that Japanese American filmmaker Konrad Aderer is returning to Boston for the New England premiere of Resistance at Tule Lake, this year's Centerpiece Film. The last time he was in Boston was five years ago when his first documentary, Enemy Alien, was co-presented by BAAFF at the 2012 Boston Palestine Film Festival. Check out the other films here.
It Is What It Is 2016 | 8 mins | Documentary| Japanese-Iranian
Directed by Cyrus Yoshi Tabar
It
is What it Is Filmmaker Cyrus Yoshi Tabar, a first-generation
Iranian-Japanese-American, has a photo of his grandparents holding him
as an infant. The photo captures his first and last encounter with
them. Seeking to understand the fracture in his family, Cyrus embarks
on a journey into the dark and nebulous corners of family history.
Fragmented and cloudy images of his family speckle his investigation
as he talks to his aunt and sister, but discovers that a family’s
narrative isn’t linear and that truth’s elusive.
Dorothy Takahashi, a Japanese American dancer born in 1917, performed under the stage name Dorothy Toy with her partner Paul Wing. During WWII, her family was incarcerated at Topaz. Dorothy escaped incarceration by going to New York with Paul. She was believed by many to be Chinese but gossip columnists outed her as Japanese, costing her film roles. Dancing Through Life tells her story.
NBC News: Dorothy Toy, the ‘Chinese Ginger Rogers,’ Found Stardom Amid World War II
99
year old Dorothy Toy Fong is a living dance legend. She began as a
child after a vaudeville theater manager noticed her dancing in front of
her parent's restaurant. During the 1930's, 40's and 50's, she teamed
up with Paul Wing and would eventually become the most famous Asian
American dance duo in this country's history. Known for dancing on her
toes, she developed a unique, athletic style of performing. Toy and Wing
were pioneers, performing on Broadway and in Hollywood films. They were
also the first Asian Americans to dance at the London Palladium.
Koji
Oshima is the proud owner of a small corner grocery store, but he must
now abandon everything and report to an assembly center. His belongings,
his business – everything must be sold or left behind, except what he
can carry in one large duffel bag.
Up against a wall, Koji
receives only one low-ball offer for his store, which he has no choice
but to accept. The lone bright spot during this turmoil is the
friendship Koji develops with a precocious nine-year-old girl. On the
day of his departure, however, Koji is saddened to learn that even this
friendship has been tainted by the larger forces of fear and wartime
hysteria.
This is director Konrad Aderer's second feature length documentary about the Japanese American incarceration. Although Konrad's family was incarcerated at other camps, he told me that he chose Tule Lake as the subject of his film because he said he's always been interested in the Japanese and Japanese Americans who resisted.
2017 | 80 mins | Documentary | Japanese-American
Directed by Konrad Aderer
RESISTANCE
AT TULE LAKE tells the long-suppressed story of 12,000 Japanese
Americans who dared to resist the U.S. government's program of mass
incarceration during World War II. Branded as 'disloyals' and
re-imprisoned at Tule Lake Segregation Center, they continued to protest
in the face of militarized violence, and thousands renounced their U.S.
citizenship. Giving voice to experiences that have been marginalized
for over 70 years, this documentary challenges the nationalist,
one-sided ideal of wartime 'loyalty'.
See trailers for 14 films in this year's festival:
Edit History
10/17/17 10:59pm: Added It Is What It Is. Not sure How I missed it!
Correction 5/31/17: Someone just pointed out to me that I had written the Saturday hours were on June 2nd. Saturday is actually June 3rd.
It is really unusual to have exhibits on the WWII Japanese American experience in the Boston area. The Transit Gallery at Harvard Medical School is currently
exhibiting part of a very rare collection of photos from a Japanese
American soldier who served in Europe in the segregated all Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team. I checked with the New England chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and we believe this may be the first exhibit in the Boston area to focus on the 442nd. I'm not even sure if other photos like these exist.
Dr. Susumu Ito or Sus as he was known to those of us who knew him, took his 35mm Agfa Ansco
to war against orders. In 2015 he told the Los Angeles Times, "I wanted
to take [my camera] because we weren't allowed to. I like to break the
rules."
Left & right: Japanese American soldiers in the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion Center: Ito's family in incarceration at Rohwer War Relocation Center
Sus was 21 when he was drafted in 1940, prior to US entry into WWII. He served in a non-segregated Quartermaster truck and
vehicle maintenance unit at Camp Haan near Riverside, California. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sus was sent to Fort Sill in Oklahoma and restricted to civilian duty as a mechanic. In 1943 he was selected to join the 442nd and assigned to
the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion,
the artillery unit of the 442nd. While Sus was stationed at Fort Shelby in Mississippi, his family was being unjustly incarcerated at the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas. He was able to visit them once before deploying to Europe and took photos of that visit. Cameras were initially banned inside War Relocation Authority incarceration camps and although restrictions were eventually lifted in the spring of 1943, few candid photos of camp life exist.
Photograph and note to Ito from Larry Lubetski, former Dachau
Concentration Camp prisoner. Lubetski was a Lithuanian Jew who was only a
teenager when the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion helped to rescue him
after the liberation of Dachau.
Sus and his camera went thousands of
miles all over Europe. He documented everything he saw along the way –
from Nazi soldiers and their prisoners (he helped to liberate Dachau) to
the daily life of his fellow Japanese American soldiers between
battles. Sus
was a prolific photographer, taking thousands of photos, many of which
he sent to his mom to let her know he was okay. The exhibit showcases
just a fraction of the collection.
Silhouettes of six German soldiers retreating westward at dawn in Germany. Spring 1945
After the war Sus continued his education with the help of the G. I. Bill and after receiving his PhD from Case Western Reserve University became
a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell Medical School in the lab of Don W. Fawcett, Chair of the Department of Anatomy. When Dr. Fawcett was
appointed Chair of the Department of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School
in 1960, he brought Sus along with him as an associate professor. After
retiring in 1990, Sus, as an Emeritus professor, remained active in the lab until 2014, happy to assist postdocs with electron microscopy, a field that he and Dr. Fawcett pioneered.
Ito on rest and recuperation, posing with his arm around the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Summer 1945
The exhibit was first displayed at the Japanese American National Museum in Los
Angeles, California in the late summer of 2015. Sus passed away just a few weeks
after the JANM exhibit closed. He was a beloved member of
Boston's Japanese American community and of the Harvard Medical School community.
In 1994, the Japanese American National Museum received a donation of several dozen 35mm film canisters and their contents from World War II veteran Susumu "Sus" Ito. While serving in the all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team's 552nd Field Artillery Battalion, Ito took thousands of photographs and carried them nearly five thousand miles across Italy, France, and Germany during his wartime service.
In part, Ito took these photos to send to his mother, who was incarcerated at the Rohwer War Relocation Center. The snapshots depict a previously unseen and close-up view of the Nisei soldiers and their everyday experiences. Through the lens of Ito's camera, these young men are just that–young men, away from home and family, serving their country in a time of war. While some of the images capture the soldiers' heroism, most of the photographs show the smaller, human moments of daily life.
Unseen for over seventy years, Sus Ito's thousands of photographs provide a rare window into one person's extraordinary experience of everyday life as a soldier during World War II.
Ito's collection captures the iconic moments often associated with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team–from the rescue of the Lost Battalion to the liberation of two Dachau subcamps.
But these intense moments of war are punctuated by long periods of boredom and waiting. From Ito reading a Superman comic to soldiers stomping on grapes to make wine, the photos notably depict the more routine activities of wartime life. Ito purposefully captured and sent these snapshots to his mother as a way [to] reassure her of his safety.
Today, the collection of photographs stands as a unique record of an important period in American history.
This exhibit was organized by the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, and is sponsored by the Harvard Medical School Office of Human Resources, the New England Japanese American Citizens League, Dr. James Adelstein, Atsuko Fish, and May & Tetsuo Takayanagi.
The original exhibit also contained artifacts and videos which due to
space and equipment limitations are not included in the Transit
Gallery's exhibit. Later this year the exhibit will travel to the Fullerton Arboretum in Fullerton, CA from September 11th to December 1st. If you are interested in booking the exhibit, please contact the Japanese American National Museum.
Hours
Open through Monday, June 26, 2017
Regular Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am - 5pm
Special hours: Saturday, June 3, 2017, 1pm - 5pm Note: If you are not a member of the Harvard Medical School community, please contact Tania Rodriguez in advance to ensure access to Gordon Hall.
Directions & Parking
Getting to Gordon Hall is a bit of a challenge. Taking the Green Line is your best option. The closest T stop is Brigham Circle on the E Line. You can access Shattuck St. by walking through the courtyard behind the Countway Library of Medicine (the entrance to the courtyard is between the Countway Library and Harvard School of Public Health).
There is some 2 hour metered parking along Huntington Ave. but not a lot. Most of the nearby parking garages are attached to hospitals and I'm not sure if they are open to the public. The closest garage that I believe is open to the public is the Longwood Galleria Garage at 350 Longwood Ave. See rates here.
Update 5/11/17: Due to the weather forecast for Saturday, the Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival organizers decided to move the matsuri indoors to the rain location at the Schluntz Gym.
Boston's two largest Japanese festivals are coming up! In the past five years attendance at both festivals has grown around six-fold. The Japan Festival Boston started off in Copley Square with 10,000 festivalgoers in 2012. Last year 60,000 people attended the festival on the Boston Common. Attendance at the Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival has grown from around 250 people in 2012 to over 1,500 last year.
Japan Festival Boston is New England's largest matsuri. This year there will be 76 regular booths, 37 food booths, 50 performances on 2 stages, 50 workshops, and a Cosplay Deathmatch. Check their Facebook page for updates.
As usual there will be lots of arts organizations and businesses, many of whom have participated in past years including Tewassa, GrayMist Studio & Shop, SAORI Worcester, Kaji Aso Studio, Chikako Mukai of Chikako Designs, Julie Kohaya of Heavenly Cranes Jewelry, and amezaiku artist Candy Miyuki (listed as Candy5). There will be at least a couple of businesses selling kimono and yukata – Nomura Kimono Shop from Japan and Ohio Kimono will both be back for their second year at the festival. An interesting new vendor is NPOReborn Kyoto which "works to nurture the independence of the women and young in developing countries through instruction of cloth fabrication and textile technology using donated Kimono from all over the Japan." See video from Kigali Today, although most of it is in Kinyarwanda, the interview with executive officer Yasuko Yamahira is in English. Another interesting new booth is a peace group called PeaceProject869. "We make opportunities to consider “What is Peace for you?” by [f]olding origami cranes for people whom we meet all over the world through our studying abroad."
The food offerings are growing more diverse and branching out from the Japanese community to include poke restaurants, fusion rice burgers, spam musubi, and more chain restaurants. This year's food vendors
include a mix of independent local businesses and chains with Boston locations that are based in Japan and other places, as well as a few others.
Daiei Trading, one of the largest Japanese food importers in the US, will also have two booths.
Although the organizers have increased the number of food booths – up from 22 last year – I'm not sure that will result in shorter lines since turnout is likely to be much higher than last year. In past years, the lines have been insanely long so you should take
snacks, especially if you're going with children or others who can't wait to eat. There are fast food places near
the Boston Common but most are on the other side of the Common away
from the festival. The festival has reduced the Fast Pass to $30 (it was $50 when they introduced it last year). This allows you to bypass the main line at a booth, although for popular booths there may still be a line for Fast Pass cardholders. It's well worth it if you're going with a family or group, but not very economical for individuals. Make sure to read carefully - there are restrictions.
See photos & video from 2016 Japan Festival Boston.
See photos from 2015 Japan Festival Boston.
See photos from 2014 Japan Festival in Boston.
How you can help
The festival is not cheap to produce and JREX is crowdfunding with Indiegogo (in past years they have used GoFundMe).
There is also a 21+ benefit concert with pop musician Shinji Harada on May 1st. Tickets are $10 for students, $20 for general admission and $60 for VIP.
Photography Note
I don't remember if this was on their website last year but I noticed this disclaimer at the bottom of the booth list. The festival is highly photographed by media, the festival organizers, and professional and amateur photographers and last year they used a drone to get footage so it's most likely impossible to avoid being photographed.
Disclaimer: **Visitors, stage performers, and others
at this festival will take videos, photos, and other media which may be
posted online, in print, and in other mediums. It is possible that
exhibitors’ booths may be captured in the aforementioned photos, videos,
etc. Please be advised that by agreeing to participate in this
festival, you are also consenting to being photographed and/or
videotaped.**
Japan Festival Boston Tips
The Japan
Festival Boston can be a challenging event for people with
disabilities. The crowds are enormous, it's not always easy to move
around, and while the booths are all set up along paved walkways, some
things (food booths, stages) are set up in grassy areas. Booths are often mobbed which can make shopping difficult. While people
with disabilities do attend (the Boston Higashi School
always has a booth) it may be difficult for people with mobility issues
and those who deal with crowd anxiety/phobia or have difficulty with loud noise. While the Boston Common is
the largest location the festival has been held at the crowds are still
intense. Advice I would offer to anyone, although especially those with
disabilities:
Even if you
stay for all seven hours of the festival you will not be able to do
everything. Pick the things you're most interested in seeing/doing
and
prioritize getting to those booths/workshops/performances. Expect that
everything will take longer than you think it will. It took me several
hours to walk around and see all the booths last year and I wasn't
stopping at all of them. I would not have been able to get food had a
friend not given me her Fast Pass.
In past locations it has been possible to hear the performances
while walking around the festival but I didn't find that to be the case
last year. If you want to see/listen to a performance you will need to
plan to be in the immediate vicinity of that stage.
If you plan to watch performances but aren't able to sit on the ground
or stand for long periods, you will need to bring your own chair, although many people stand so it can be difficult to see.
Parking under the Boston Common tends to fill up quickly and is
expensive so if you can take the T, it's a much better option. If you
have to drive, consider making a reservation via a site like Parkopedia or parking in a garage in
Chinatown. There is some on-street metered parking that is free on Sundays but it's very difficult to park in that area.
Check the
weather and dress appropriately. Dress in layers if you plan to stay
there all day. If you have a yukata or kimono feel free to wear it.
Pack sunscreen. You may also want to pack a hat.
Everyone in your party should have a fully charged cell
phone.
Pick a meeting time/location away from the main festival area if you get separated from your party. I would also recommend that if you are planning to go with small
children that you consider having them carry some kind of ID with your
contact info on it. Last year I saw a small child separated from his
adults. It appeared that he was too young to know their phone number and
may also not have been an English-speaker.
Unless you don't mind standing in line for over an hour, bring your own
food or buy a $30 Fast Pass.
Pack as large a bottle of water as you can carry.
There are portable toilets along Beacon and Charles Streets but if the crowds are dense it may take a while to walk there.
Bring cash and make sure you have a lot of small bills. I believe that all the food vendors are cash only. Some of the commercial vendors take credit cards, but not all.
If you plan to do a lot of shopping, bring a bag to carry your purchases. Some vendors will provide bags, but not all do.
Ittoku, the popular izakaya in Brighton who was the Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival's first food vendor beginning in 2014, will be back along with Itadaki, Japonaise Bakery, and Hana Japan
(who host their own Natsu Matsuri every August). New vendors this year are the Japanese cream puff chain, Beard Papa's, and local fish market, Sakanaya. The food lines aren't
as long as the Japan Festival Boston but if you have young children you
should plan ahead.
See photos from 2016 Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival.
See videos from 2015 Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival.
See photos from 2014 Brookline Sakura Matsuri.
Admission
Suggested Donation: $5 students, $10-20 families
All proceeds support the BHS Japan Exchange Program Scholarship Fund and promotion of the arts
Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival Tips
Brookline
High School is fully handicap accessible and the courtyard where the
festival is held is a small enough space that you can hear all of the
performances regardless of where you are (seeing might be harder if you're on the back end of a line or crowd). The crowd ebbs and flows and most people stay for the full four hours although at peak
times it could be challenging for people with crowd anxiety/phobia and
definitely for those with issues with noise.
Parking is very limited so take the Green Line if you can. The closest stop is Brookline Hills on the D Line. If you
have to drive, allow extra time to find parking. There is no parking lot - it's
all on street parking (non-metered).
If you have sensitive hearing, bring earplugs. Taiko drums are LOUD.
Hopefully it won't rain but if it does and the event is held in the gym
instead of the courtyard, it will be painful.
Check the
weather and dress appropriately. Dress in layers if you plan to stay
there all afternoon. If you have a yukata or kimono feel free to wear
it.
Pack sunscreen. Many parts of the courtyard are not in shade. You may also want to pack a hat. Sadly, not necessary this year. Forecast calls for rain so the matsuri will be indoors.
If you have seasonal allergies, medicate. I volunteered at the
Tewassa booth a couple of years ago and even though I was medicated I
was covered in pollen and itching when I left. There are a lot of trees
and other plant life in the courtyard.
The courtyard is concrete so you may want to bring your own chair or a blanket.
The food lines aren't as bad at the Brookline Cherry Blossom
Festival as
they are at the Japan Festival Boston but there are fewer options. If
you are coming with small children or finicky eaters, you should bring
snacks. If you come later, there is a chance that food will be sold out.
There are no restaurants within close walking distance of Brookline High School.
Pack a bottle of water.
There is access to bathrooms and water fountains inside Brookline High School.
Bring cash and make sure you have small bills. The food vendors are cash only and I believe the few other booths that sell or accept donations are also cash only.
Disclosure:
I would like to note that I am friends with some of the organizers of
both of these festivals, however I publicize them because they are the
largest Japanese cultural events in the Boston area, not just because my
friends organize them. :)
If you are aware of a 3.11 event that I have not listed, please post
a comment with a link to the event or details if the info isn't on a
public webpage. I will update this post if I learn of any other events.
Although the world's attention has moved on to other disasters, some
groups in Boston continue to be involved in educating the public and supporting Japan through
this crisis. If you are interested in learning
more, please consider attending one of these events. Events are listed in chronological order.
Update 3/1/17: I just learned that MIT Japanese Tea Ceremony will not hold their annual 3.11 Japan Memorial Charity remembrance and fundraising event this year.
Tewassa,
a Cambridge-based volunteer group that produces "message quilts" for
schools and organizations in the Tōhoku region, will be holding a memorial event.
Public Transit & Parking
GrayMist
is accessible by the 72 and 75 buses from Harvard Square. There is free
on-street parking along Huron Ave. and neighboring streets.
Children of the Tsunami Screening & Fundraiser for Ashinaga
Children of the Tsunami (watch for free on vimeo)
Directed & written by Dan Reed
2012 | Japan | 59 mins | Documentary
On March 11th 2011 Japan was hit by the greatest tsunami in a thousand years. Through
compelling testimony from 7-10 year-old survivors, this film reveals
how the deadly wave and the Fukushima nuclear accident have changed children's lives forever. The
story unfolds at two key locations: a primary school where 74 children
were killed by the tsunami; and a school close to the Fukushima nuclear
plant, attended by children evacuated from the nuclear exclusion zone.
The Tufts Japanese Culture Club's event is a fundraiser to benefit Ashinaga, a Japan-based non-profit that provides financial, educational, and emotional support to children worldwide "who have lost one or both parents as a result of illness,
accident/disaster, or suicide, as well as children who have a parent
with a disability that prevents them from working". Since 2011, the Tufts JCC* has been very active in fundraising and educating the Tufts community on the ongoing post-3.11 challenges.
Snack Sale & Crane Folding
Stop by the Mayer Campus Center to purchase mochi, cookies and rice crackers! JCC* students will also be folding origami cranes for a senbazuru (one thousand origami cranes) which will be installed later in the Tisch Library.
From 2011 to 2013, RYUSUKE HAMAGUCHI and Ko Sakai conducted a series of
interviews with residents in the Tohoku region of northern Japan, an
area heavily hit by both the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. Their
research resulted in three films which have since come to be known as
the Tohoku Trilogy: The Sound of the Waves (Nami no oto 2011), Voices
from the Waves (Nami no koe 2013), and Storytellers (Utau hito, 2013).
In Voices from the Waves, residents from the region face the camera in
close-up view to deliver recollections of the earthquake and tsunami.
Centering on the rich regional folk tradition of storytelling, the film
explores the experience of discovery in the encounter between speaker
and listener. Through Hamaguchi’s lens, Voices from the Waves poignantly
showcases how a single event may live a thousand lives through the act
of telling and how different voices can render that one event into
similar yet unique pieces of storytelling. This interaction between
speaker and listener becomes an empowering and transformative process,
an affirmation of human resilience, and provides hope for recovery and a
return to normalcy in the region. (Screening time: 103 minutes,
Japanese with English subtitles)
Reischauer Institute Japan Forum special film presentation
Students from Tohoku University of Art and Design are coming to Boston Children's Museum for the fifth year to mark the anniversary of 3.11. For the third year the students will
have an art and friendship exhibit. The public is invited to attend the
exhibit opening. The exhibit is open through Monday, September 30, 2017. Children can meet the artists from Japan and engage in a
hands-on activity. See photos from 2014 (here and here)
when they had fun making monsters. The exhibit is brought to the museum
by artist Minatsu Ariga and her “ART THINKING” project team at the
university.
Exploring trains as a symbol of determination and kindness carrying HOPE to our Future!
This art exhibition “トレイン トレイン TRAIN TRAIN” invites visitors on an imaginary adventure to our future.
Trains
are not quitters. They just keep moving forward every day whether in
the rain, in the wind, against the summer heat, or against the winter
snow. Trains often remind us of the importance of hard work, patience,
tenacity, and willpower.
Trains carry many things and
people, and trains help them reach to their destinations. Trains remind
us of the importance of kindness, generosity, and compassion for all
humanities and the earth we live in.
In this art
exhibition, artists use “trains” as their storytellers and welcome us to
reflect our lives through exploring those stories. Where is your train
going? Between a station and a station, trains connect us together and
lead us to our tomorrow with hopes and dreams.... Please also tell us
your train stories. What is your train story like? Is it romantic,
dynamic, soulful, gentle...?
The artworks in this
exhibition are created by the members of the “ART THINKING” project team
at Tohoku University of Art & Design in Japan. After the
devastating earthquake and tsunami in their hometown in March 2011, they
decided to use the special power of ART to make the world a better
place and connect with many friends like you! So they bought this
exhibition to Boston as their fourth annual international friendship
making project.
Our hope is that this exhibition also brings
opportunities for the visitors to peek into today’s youth culture and
children’s experience in Japan. Visitors are encouraged to make
connections and share their own stories. Through this cross-cultural
experience in this art exhibition “トレイン トレイン TRAIN TRAIN”, we hope to
engage visitors in joyful discovery of learning and foster their
appreciation of the world.
Admission
Please see the museum's website for admission details.
Please note that "Adults unaccompanied by children must leave proper photo identification
at the Admissions Desk. Examples: State Driver’s License or Passport."
This
year is the fifth annual Cranes on the Square event organized by local
Japanese language teacher Timothy Nagaoka.
Volunteers will teach people how to fold origami cranes which
will form a temporary public art piece in Copley Square then be
collected and delivered to people in the disaster area. See photos from last year's event here.
Date & Time
Sunday, March 12, 2017
11:30am - 4:30pm
San Francisco, California, 1942.
Exclusion Order posted at First and Front Streets directing removal of persons of
Japanese ancestry from the first San Francisco section to be effected by the evacuation. Dorothea Lange, National Archives Identifier: 536017
Today is the 75th anniversary of the Day of Remembrance, the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed the US government to incarcerate Americans and foreign nationals during WWII. The largest DOR event being organized in the Boston area by the New England chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and the MIT Center for International Studies is on Saturday. There is also an event at Tufts on Thursday.
If anyone knows of any other DOR events happening later this month, please let me know and I will update this post. You can also submit events to the Never Again Facebook community that was put together by people in the national Japanese American community. The community is public but note that the Events page doesn't seem to be visible if you don't have a Facebook account.
Please
join Tufts Japanese Culture Club and Muslim Student's Association to
commemorate Day of Remembrance. Together, we remember the lives affected
and lost by Executive Order 9066, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed and authorized the forced removal of 120,000 Japanese Americans
from their homes on the West Coast during World War II. Through our
personal stories of family members interned and Islamophobic violence
following 9/11, we strive to illuminate moments in American history in
which groups are casted as “enemy alien” and disloyal. We must view
today’s Executive Orders against immigration as fully connected to the
past.
This evening's event will feature:
- "PILGRIMAGE", a documentary by Tad Nakamura
that tells the inspiring story of how an abandoned WWII concentration
camp for Japanese Americans has been transformed into a symbol of
retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races and
nationalities in our post 9/11 world.
- PERSONAL STORY SHARING
about our families' experiences in internment and following 9/11. Hear
from Japanese Culture Club and Muslim Student's Association members, Anna
Kimura, Joseph Tsuboi, Chelsea Hayashi, Shaan Shaikh, and Nazifa
Sarawat.
The
panel will begin with reflections on the 75th anniversary of internment
of Japanese Americans, then assess and respond to issues raised by the
current wave of Islamophobia and xenophobia.
Parking & Transportation
Two hour metered street parking is limited due to construction and Cambridge tickets aggressively. There are several nearby parking garages, but all are expensive.
