Tule Lake was the largest and most infamous of the camps. At its peak it housed nearly 19,000 prisoners and was the site of significant unrest. While the camp started out with the same status as other camps, it was eventually designated a "segregation center" where prisoners deemed disloyal by the so-called "Loyalty Questionnaire" were separated from their families and moved from other camps. (The official title of the document was "Selective Service Form 304A / Statement of United States Citizen of Japanese Ancestry".)
Note: Dinner will be served. Film screening followed by panel discussion with students whose families were incarcerated in Japanese American incarceration camps.
Resistance at Tule Lake
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.”
Resistance at Tule Lake premiered
early 2017 and continues to screen in various film festivals, museum
exhibitions, educational institutions and local community
organizations. The
documentary will be broadcast nationally in 2018 and made available for
educational, institutional and home use as a DVD and other formats
including Internet viewing.
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.
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.
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.
The 8th annual Boston Asian American Film Festival runs from October 20th to 23rd. This year's festival has films from a Japanese American filmmaker, a
Japanese-Brazilian filmmaker, a Japanese animator, and a film about a
local Japanese American mental health activist. Check out the other films here.
I'm really excited that Emerson College alum Matthew Hashiguchi's film Good Luck Soup will be screened for free at BAAFF! The film is being co-presented with Emerson's Bright Lights Series. Good Luck Soup is a transmedia documentary. Check out the film's interactive site. This is Matthew's second film at BAAFF. People Aren't All Bad with Yutaka Kobayashi was in the 2012 Shorts Program.
Directed by Matthew Hashiguchi 2016 | 70 mins | USA | Documentary
After
years of rejecting his Japanese heritage, filmmaker Matthew Hashiguchi
sets out on a humorous yet insightful journey to discover if his joyful
grandmother and other family members also struggled with their Japanese
American identities, just as he did while growing up in a predominantly
white neighborhood in the Midwest. Along the way, Matthew uncovers the
family’s decades-long struggle to assimilate into the Midwest and
obtains insightful, yet humorous wisdom from his grandmother on how she
overcame racial adversity after leaving the WWII Japanese American
Internment Camps.
Leandro Tadashi, a Japanese-Brazilian filmmaker, filmed Bá in Brazil. The full film can be seen on Vimeo (click the blue "CC" for subtitles in English, Japanese, Spanish, French and Portuguese!). I emailed with Leandro and learned that his grandmother, Yuriko Miamoto Shimata, plays Bruno's Bá. She also starred in his 2011 short Oyasuminasai. Unfortunately, Leandro won't be able to make it for the Q&A.
Bá
Written & directed by Leandro Tadashi 2015 | 14 mins | Brazil | Drama
Tells the story of a little Japanese-Brazilian boy named Bruno,
whose life is turned upside down when his "Bá" (from Bāchan, grandma in
Japanese) is brought to live in his house.
Pata
Directed by Kathryn Klingle
2016 | USA | 9 mins | Documentary
"Pata" explores what role chronic depression has played in the life of Pata Suyemoto--teacher, artist, mental health activist.
Asian CineVision has an interesting interview with Masayuki Kusaka, the producer of Harry on the Clouds. The film was originally produced as a music video for the Japanese band, RAM WIRE, with the title 僕らの手には何もないけど (Bokura no te ni wa nani mo naikedo) "Although there is nothing in our hands". They changed the soundtrack and sent it off to film festivals around the world. [Special thanks to Sachiko T for translation help!]
Harry on the Clouds
Directed by Aya Shiroi (城井文)
2016 | Japan | 4 mins | Drama (Animated)
Mother sheep can't wake up because Harry was gone. But Harry is looking his mother from the clouds.
See trailers for 16 films in this year's festival:
Directed by Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto-Wong
2014 | 56 mins | Documentary
“Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the World War
II Internment Camps” is the full title of this documentary, using
historical footage and interviews from artists who were interned to tell
the story of how traditional Japanese cultural arts were maintained at a
time when the War Relocation Authority (WRA) emphasized the importance
of assimilation and Americanization. Various essays and studies
concerning the camps have been published, but have focused on the
political and legal aspects of the internment, while hardly mentioning
cultural and recreational activities in the camps. When cultural and
recreational activities have been documented, they have focused on
American culture, such as baseball and swing music. This film will be
the first major presentation of the existence of traditional music,
dance and drama in the camps. It is possible only because Shirley
Kazuyo Muramoto-Wong has been searching, researching and collecting for
over 20 years information on who these artists were. She has collected
interviews, oral and visual histories, as well as artifacts from the
internees and relatives of internees, including teachers, students, the
performers, and the incredible artists who made instruments, costumes,
and the props needed for a full performance from scraps of wood,
toothbrush handles, gunny sacks, paint, and whatever they could scrape
up. Her own family’s history with the camps led her to become a kotoist
and teacher of the Japanese koto (13-stringed zither).
Very little is known of the existence of traditional Japanese
performance arts in the camps. The artists Muramoto-Wong has
interviewed are all Americans, all born here, but practiced Japanese
arts before the war, during, and after the war, because they loved the
art. This made them “social activists” in their own quiet way,
continuing the music and dance they loved, helping others to learn and
enjoy these arts, and to help draw their attention away from their
surroundings, giving them pride and self-esteem. Their efforts kept
Japanese cultural arts alive in our communities today.
We have interviewed 30 artists in the fields of music (koto, nagauta
shamisen, shakuhachi, shigin, biwa), dance (buyo, obon) and drama
(kabuki) who were interned at Tule Lake, Manzanar, Amache/Granada,
Rohwer, Gila River, and Topaz. We have interviewed Prof. Minako Waseda
of Geijutsu Daigaku University of Music and Arts, and Kunitachi College
of Music, both universities in Tokyo, whose research thesis,
Extraordinary Circumstances, Exceptional Practices: Music in Japanese
American Concentration Camps, had written the only scholarly work that
had been published on this subject. We are also interviewing students
of these arts in America, some who learned from these artists, and some
who are carrying on the tradition in our communities today, and some who
have taken this knowledge, and expanded creatively and artistically in
various imaginative ways.
Film locations include camps at Manzanar, Tule Lake, Heart Mountain;
locations in Japan, such as Osaka, Kyoto, 3 Tokyo music universities
(Tokyo Ongaku Daigaku, Geijutsu Daigaku, Kunitachi College of Music);
Cherry Blossom Festivals in San Francisco and Cupertino; San Jose Obon
Festival; Chidori Band 59th Anniversary Concert; Japanese American
Museum of San Jose; dance studio of Bando Misayasu (aka Mary Arii Mah),
and koto studio of Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto-Wong.
Event Information
Film screening followed by Q&A with creative director Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto-Wong and
actress Takayo Fischer with koto performance by Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto-Wong.
Date & Time
Monday, October 24, 2016
3:00 - 6:00pm
Location
UMass Boston
McCormack Hall, Ryan Lounge, Room M-3-721 (3rd floor)
Dorchester, MA 02125
Morrissey Satellite Lot (75 Morrissey Boulevard) Herb Chambers
property next to the Boston Globe building
St. Christopher’s Church across from the Bayside Lot
Admission
Free
Date & Time
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
7:00 - 9:00pm
Location
Wellesley College
Acorns House (building not on map - head toward the lake, pass Clapp Library and Acorns House is to the right of Harambee House)
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
Date & Time
Thursday, October 27, 2016
6:30 - 8:30pm
Location
Brandeis University
Mandel Center for the Humanities, Room G12
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453
Directions/Parking
After 5pm visitors may park anywhere. Tower Lot is closest to the Mandel Center.
Admission
Free
Special thanks to Kimi Maeda for making the introductions that allowed us to get Hidden Legacy screened at Brandeis!
About the Creative Director
Shirley Kazuyo
Muramoto-Wong was raised in a musical family whose roots lie in the Chikushi
Kai School of kotoists in Japan. Her mother is a respected head of
the Chikushi Kai in the Bay Area, with close ties to her teachers in
Japan. Shirley was taught within that tradition, learning and constantly
performing the core of traditional pieces shared by all koto groups and
also the repertoire particular to the Chikushi Kai. Importantly, it is
a group which is also open to contemporary music for the koto, so that
her repertoire encompasses such works as the compositions of Tadao
Sawai, Katsutoshi Nagasawa and Shinichi Yuize. From that spirit of
open-mindedness (within tradition), Shirley also pursued her interest in
jazz and as it extends to the koto, and improvisation.
In
1976, Shirley received her “Shihan” degree (instructor’s license) with
“Yushusho” (highest) honors from the Chikushi School in Fukuoka, Japan,
and her "Dai Shihan" Master’s degree from the same school in 2000 for
her mastery of the koto.
A
dedicated musician for over 50 years, Shirley strives to involve
diverse genres of art and music in her performances. She teaches
private students, and has offered classes in koto music at public
schools and at universities, most notably classes at UC
Berkeley. Shirley has incorporated storytelling, poetry, hip-hop,
gospel, bluegrass, jazz, European classical, and has arranged world
songs from countries such as China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Philippines and
so on, for koto, as well as performing and arranging traditional and
contemporary Japanese songs, and composing her own koto pieces. She
also is the leader of the world jazz fusion group, the Murasaki
Ensemble.
“The
koto is an extremely versatile instrument,” says Shirley. “Though it
seems limited and simple in its nature, it’s possible to extract a
myriad of textures and sounds through various techniques and even
percussive rhythms by incorporating the body of the instrument itself.
The koto is initially easy to play, but it really takes years of
practice to be able to produce a good sound.”
Shirley’s
koto influences include koto masters Katsuko Chikushi, Kimio Eto, Kazue
Sawai, and June Kuramoto. Her jazz influences come from the members of
the her jazz group, the Murasaki Ensemble, who are Vince Delgado on
percussion, Jeff Massanari on guitar, Matt Eakle on flute, and Alex Baum
on bass.
Because of Shirley’s versatility on the koto, she has performed for many notable people and celebrities, such as: Senator
Diane Feinstein, George Lucas/Lucas Films, former Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone, Walter Shorenstein, Larry Ellison and Mikael
Gorbachev. She has also performed at many eclectic events from the
Fillmore and Union Street Jazz Festivals to the AT&T Golf Tournament
hosted by Clint Eastwood, Christina Aguilera, and the Sacramento,
Marin, and Fremont symphony orchestras. Shirley has performed at
numerous community events, and given of her time to many of them,
including annual Cherry Blossom Festivals in San Francisco and
Cupertino, many Obon festivals in Oakland, Palo Alto, Mountain View and
San Jose, just to name a few. In 2012, Shirley was honored by the Hokka
Nichibei Kai Bunka Japanese American Cultural Association of America by
being inducted into their Hall of Fame.
Shirley has
been most interested in researching Japanese traditional performance
arts in the World War II concentration camps, after finding out that her
mother learned to play the koto from koto teachers at Topaz and Tule
Lake camps during WWII. In 2012, she was awarded a National Parks
Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant to turn her
decades-long research into a documentary film. The film, “Japanese
Traditional Performance Arts in the World War II Internment Camps”
completed in 2014, includes interviews and stories from 21 people who
experienced Japanese performing arts in the camps, or were taught by
teachers from the camps, archival photos as well as actual film footage
of performances in the camps. Hidden Legacy has
been screened publicly at numerous community showings, at universities
including UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Tokyo Arts, Waseda, Musashino and
Doshisha Universities, and aired on public TV across the United States
since its premiere.
Takayo Fischer
Actress
Takayo Fischer learned kabuki, buyō, and shamisen while she
was interned at the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas during
WWII. She is best known for her roles as Mistress Chang in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and as Suzanne, the secretary to Brad Pitt's character, Billy, in the film Moneyball.
Takayo is active with the renowned Asian American theater organization
East West Players in Los Angeles and has acted on Broadway.
In 2015, as America and Japan celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, few remembered – if they ever knew – that twelve American prisoners-of-war were on the ground in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and were killed by the atomic bomb that destroyed the city that day.
One of the Americans was Normand Brissette, a teen-age Navy flier from Lowell, Massachusetts; another was Sgt. Ralph Neal from Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
This powerful new film tells their story.
And the story of Shigeaki Mori, himself a Hiroshima survivor, who never knew the American bomb victims but who has devoted his life to finding their families and dedicating monuments to their memory.
I had intended to write something much longer about this exhibit but I've run out of time. This is the last week of the MFA's Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia. Made in the Americas showcases the work of artists from North and South America, including indigenous artists, who were influenced by goods coming in from Asia. Some of the objects in this exhibit come from the MFA's own collection and some were loaned from The Hispanic Society of America in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In some cases they copied motifs (shown with a Peruvian tapestry that included Chinese mythological creatures and was clearly copied from imported Chinese textiles) and in others, came up with new techniques to replicate the look of Asian art (as with japanning). These days many of these artists would likely be accused cultural appropriation. It was incredible to see the way Asian art had inspired them to create art that was similar but uniquely their own. If you have time to see it before it closes on Monday, February 15th, I highly recommend it.
Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia
Within decades of the “discovery” of America by Spain in 1492, goods
from Asia traversed the globe via Spanish and Portuguese traders. The
Americas became a major destination for Asian objects and Mexico became
an international hub of commerce. The impact of the importation of these
goods was immediate and widespread, both among the European colonizers
and the indigenous populations, who readily adapted their own artistic
traditions to the new fashion for Asian imports.
“Made in the Americas” is the first large-scale, Pan-American
exhibition to examine the profound influence of Asia on the arts of the
colonial Americas. Featuring nearly 100 of the most extraordinary
objects produced in the colonies, this exhibition explores the rich,
complex story of how craftsmen throughout the hemisphere adapted Asian
styles in a range of materials—from furniture to silverwork, textiles,
ceramics, and painting. Exquisite objects from Mexico City, Lima, Quito,
Quebec City, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, dating from the 17th
to the early 19th centuries, include blue-and-white talavera
ceramics copied from imported Chinese porcelains, elaborately decorated
furniture inspired by imported Japanese lacquer, and luxuriously woven
textiles made to replicate fine silks and cottons imported from China
and India.
The timing of the exhibition marks the 450th anniversary of the
beginning of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade between the Philippines
and Mexico, which was inaugurated in 1565 and ended in 1815, two and a
half centuries later.
Date & Time
Through Monday, February 15, 2016
See MFA's website for hours.
The Southern Barbarians Come to Trader Kanō Naizen
A Peruvian Cover is on display alongside a Chinese embroidered tapestry (on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art) that was made for export. Such tapestries have never been found in South America but were known to have been exported to Europe and the Americas. The MFA notes in the label that the Peruvian artisans "closely cop[ied] their format, style, and iconography." You can see how similar the motifs are, in particular, the mythical xieshi. The Chinese embroidery is believed to be from the Guangzhou region and was probably exported to Japan in the 17th century. It has been heavily re-embroidered, most likely in Japan in the 19th
century. (Additional information provided by Pamela Parmal, Curator of Textiles and Fashion Arts.)
When: Through Tuesday, January 5, 2016, Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm (although I was told the building is actually open from 7am - 7pm) Location: Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South, Lower Level, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138
When: Through Saturday, November 14, 2015Extended through December 19, 2015, Monday - Saturday, noon - 5pm (they will be open on Veterans Day; closed 11/26-27 for Thanksgiving) Location: Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
The 7th annual Boston Asian American Film Festival starts this Thursday, October 22nd. It looks like there are only two films at this year's festival featuring Japanese American stories. Check out the other films here!
Despite lingering wartime enmity, tens of thousands of Japanese
wives -- the biggest influx of Asian women in U.S. history -- crossed
the Pacific. They began new lives in difficult and to them mysterious
circumstances, scattered across the country in places where they were
often the first Japanese ever seen. What was it like to abandon family,
friends and country, and marry a former enemy? Even for those whose
choice of spouse proved to be a tragic mistake, there was no turning
back. Many in Japan viewed them as social outcasts and even today the
words "war bride" in Japanese carry such a stigma -- of bar girls, even
prostitution -- that people don't like to say them. Now these women are
in their 80s. This is their story, of lives shaped by one irrevocable
decision.
Directed by Grace Lee
2015 | 56 mins | Documentary
Off the Menu: Asian America is an exploration of food in
changing communities, families, traditions, and faiths. In the one-hour
documentary, Lee travels from Houston, Texas to New York’s Lower East
Side, from Oak Creek, Wisconsin to Oahu, Hawaii seeking stories that
reflect an evolving Asian Pacific America and the role food plays in
peoples’ lives.
“We wanted to find unexpected stories that
embodied the Asian American experience,” Lee said. “Asian America is
already such a vast, complex, and contested idea. Focusing on food was a
way to explore the deeper connections of culture, family, and ideas of
authenticity and adaptation that link us all.”
