Third Annual Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora: WE Never Die

May 20 2023

WE never die is a healing ritual to celebrate the eternal spirit within. Even after our physical bodies are gone, our spirits live on - in the memories of people whose lives we touch, in the art that we create, and in the stories we share. 

SATSUKI INA was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, an American concentration camp, during WWII. She grew up in San Francisco’s Japantown where she drank 5 cent cokes and read comic books at Koga’s soda fountain.  

As a licensed psychotherapist, her primary clinical work has focused on intergenerational families struggling with legacies of trauma.  She has produced two award winning documentary films, Children of the Camps, and From A Silk Cocoon, both currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Her book, The Poet and The Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest will be released by HeyDay Books Fall 2023.

In 2015, she was asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to enter a family detention facility in South Texas, ostensibly as a “religious visitor” to evaluate the trauma effects on the mothers and children being held there under indefinite detention. Her op-ed piece was published by the Huffington Post in May, 2015.

She is one of the co-founders of Tsuru for Solidarity, a grassroots, non-violent, direct action project of Japanese American social justice advocates working to end child detention sites and to support front-line immigrant and refugee communities that are being targeted by racist, inhumane immigration policies.

TRACI KATO-KIRIYAMA (they+she, based on unceded Tongva land) is an award-winning multidisciplinary writer/performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, community organizer and audiobook narrator. tkk is the author of Navigating With(out) Instruments (Writ Large Press); actor/writer with PULLproject Ensemble (TALES OF CLAMOR; NEFA and NET awards); core artist of Vigilant Love; organizer of the Nikkei Progressives/NCRR Reparations committee; co-chair of the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition; Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project, presenting Tuesday Night Cafe - now in its 25th year as the long-running Asian American free public arts series in the country.

Featured Presenters:

CHIZU OMORI is a civil rights activist and writer. Born in 1930 she was incarcerated at Poston, Arizona for over 3 years during WWII. She is currently active on the Tule Lake Committee, Tsuru for Solidarity, and the Wakasa Memorial Committee. 

She is a UC Berkeley grad who became a civil rights activist. In Seattle, Chizu worked for 10 years on the redress campaign and was named a plaintiff in the class action lawsuit for redress for Japanese Americans. This case was heard before the Supreme Court, and was declared moot after Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988.

Co-producer of Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary on JA incarceration, which premiered on national TV in 1999. Currently active on the Tule Lake Committee, Tsuru for Solidarity, and Wakasa Memorial Committee. Has been a columnist and writer for the Nichi Bei Times and other publications for over 30 years.

NANCY UKAI is project director of the 50 Objects website which explores the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans through 50 artifacts. It is a National Park Service JACS project. She has helped lead protests against the auction of camp artifacts, which are symbols of suffering, racial hate and should not be commodified. She is a Topaz descendant and a member of the Wakasa Memorial Committee which was created to protect the Wakasa Monument and memorial site in Utah. Nancy went to Japan in March to find Mr. Wakasa’s descendants for the 80th anniversary of his murder on April 11, 1943.


Second Annual Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora: Ikiru (To Live)

We are feeling torn open, held, connected to our ancestors and to new life.

We learned that a surprising number of our grandfathers owned corner stores, we learned about each other, we learned about ourselves. If you were not able to join us for the second annual Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora, we are sharing the video recording with the hope that you feel many things as well!

We will be gathering again next year for the Third Annual Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora, but we hope to see you before then!


2021 Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora: Enso

 
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May 28th & 29th, 2021


Thank you to everyone who joined this once in a lifetime intergenerational Zoom gathering of people of Japanese descent featuring Living Treasures, Culture Bearers and Wisdom Keepers.

During this time of rising hate, musicians, poets, storytellers, filmmakers, spiritual leaders & visionaries joined together to re-member the resilience of our ancestors, found strength, and left strong facing future. 

In honor of our multiracial children and family members.

 

Part 1

Why My Father Stopped Talking to Me

Who am I and why does it matter? How does my grandparents’ life experience affect my worldview and expectations? What happens when we name the pain? Watch below for a conversation with Dr. Satsuki Ina, The Honorable Judge Thelton Henderson, and Noelani Ahia. Hear visionaries, poets and musicians Vicki Eagle, Nancy Ukai, Mark Izu, and Janice Mirikitani. Lean in. Learn from one another. Share your story.

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Part 2 and 3

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Japanese Joy

What does Joy have to do with resilience? After understanding our history, naming our pain and pulling out shards of embedded trauma, how do we care for ourselves? Joy can strengthen resilience but what brings us joy? In this session we shared home movies from the 1930’s and afterwards. See what joy looked like before the Incarceration and now. Artists & spiritual leaders PJ Hirabayashi, George Yamasaki, and Kenny Endo raised our spirits and Traci Kato-Kiriyama will led us in interactive exercises to find our own Joy. Japanese Joy shined a light on our ability to endure now and in the future.

 

Hear the Now Facing Future

Our children are the future and that future is multiracial. How do our children navigate multiple cultural identities and how can we help them? How does the experience of white-passing and non-white passing multiracial people differ? The U.S. is nearing the tipping point - whites are no longer the majority. What does that mean for our grandchildren’s children? What do they need us to do now in order for them to thrive, standing tall with their heads held high. Join the fight against cultural extinction!

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Story Talk

by devorah major

Hearing story talk circles of healing

From the occupied lands of the Ohlone peoples
from the native lands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute
from traditional Nonotuck land
Muwekma and Ohlone Chochenyo land
Wampanoag and Nipmuc land
from the land of the Kizh, Gabrielino
and Tonga peoples
From the lands of the
Yelamu/Ohlone Ramaytush

We are her

We are connected to and responsible for these lands today
to make sure that the dark times will not happen again

We bring our historical trauma
and the harsh reality of today
to the reconvening of our tribe
here with our culture bearers,
wisdom keepers
us
All of us
with our difficult stories
that are Important to share

When you are of color
you never escape history

All our communities are struggling
with oppression and racism
inherited shame

All of us carry generational trauma

We carry the fear of walking our streets
of our elders and our children
leaving our doorsteps

And now some don’t expect
people like us to do what we can really do

But remember we’ve always endured
Created the birthplace of another culture
U S us
All of us
Holding up the mirror
of what it means to be Japanese

Centering all the pieces of our selves
into one unified truth of
what it means to be human

Your importance and mine are the same
Whose humanity is being challenged or erased

We bring our ancestors with us
So that we can say what our ancestors
need us to say
When we lean back on our ancestors
they give us the strength to be who we are
to create a chant for change

Roots matter
Our roots connect us to the earth
And the earth connects us to each other

We can be in community and mourn
but also celebrate our being together
The profoundness of being able to tell our stories
To acknowledge the wounds, acknowledge the pain
acknowledge our ability to protest, dance, yell, sing

Exchanging small pieces of our lives
helps transform sorrow and opens the heart,
offering a way forward.

The echoing drums- taiko, tom toms, bongos, hand drums
intertwine with the bass
becoming our hearts humming with possibilities
guitar fingers, shimmering bells
resonate with our tears and laughter
Flutes bird songs bring flocks
soaring between branches
riding the winds of healing
sheng, shakuhachi, saxophone
voice our sorrow and our release
Music our salve, at times
Our salvation

Evoke your ancestors
and the ancestors of extended family
Call out the sacred names of spirit
Have gratitude for breath
friendship, community, humanity

Love will be amplified
so there is no refuge for hate

Gather the infinite energy from the universe
from the earth into the vessel that is you
Swim in a ocean of chi
an ocean of infinite power with no boundaries

Our bodies moving
Our minds opening
Our hearts opening
Even when we’re angry
There will be joy

Voices open in song
Limbs stretch in dance

Each of you is important
We’ve created a healing space
We will hold our heads high
and face the future together

The fight for humanity needs us all
Independence is a myth
Be grounded and real in our interconnections

Be a voice for the people you grew up with
for those in back of you and in front
Know your stories
Know your stories were shared
at this beautiful gathering where courage floated.

Thank you for sharing your powerful stories
reclaiming/owning your traditions and history
You were a gift to us
Old faces, new faces, faces of future community
We are more the same than we are different.

We can find ways to turn fear and pain
into resilience and action

What a wonderful celebration
in spite of the turmoil in our country and the world today.
Our stories were eye wetting and gut churning
but transformational.

So much strength and wisdom
beautiful, like a scroll of our history
Liberating
Connected
Empowered and Compassionate
Creating metamorphosis
Invisible threads of golden light
connecting our hearts and making us strong
We are ONE
Oneness not sameness

 
 

Story Circle of the
Japanese Diaspora Collage

by Andi Wong

 
 
 

About Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu

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Brenda Wong Aoki

Brenda Wong Aoki is a storyteller, anthologized playwright, producer, artistic director, and performer. Her song/dance/dramas are drawn from her family’s 121-year history in San Francisco and the Bay Area, Kabuki legends, ghost stories, and her personal experience. Known for her agility across disciplines, she creates monodramas rooted in traditional storytelling, dance movement, and music. Her sensei is Living Treasure, Nomura Mansaku, a Kyogen master; she also studied Noh with Nomura Shiro, who is a Cultural Intangible Property. The first nationally recognized Asian Pacific storyteller in the U.S., Aoki’s work is part of the American Folk Life Collection at the Library of Congress.

Mark Izu

Composer, producer and bandleader Mark Izu has fused the traditional music of Asia with African- American improvisation. Izu plays acoustic bass as well as several traditional Asian instruments such as the sheng (Chinese multi-reed instrument) and sho (Japanese multi-reed instrument). As the Artistic Director of the Asian American Jazz Festival for 15 years, Izu has gained national and international attention for developing a new musical genre, Asian American Jazz for which he was inducted into the Grove Dictionary of Music as a founder.

 
 

In Partnership With

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The Japanese Arts Network (JA-NE) is a national resource for artistic collaboration and connection that provides access to resources and develops programs and platforms that support, advance, and strengthen visibility for Japanese Artists in America. JA-NE is deeply committed to lifting up the voices of marginalized artists and cultivating cross-cultural exchange and multi-generational dialogue. To learn more visit: www.ja-ne.org

 

Speakers and Artists

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Funded By

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