Cherry Blossom Festival SoCal
(www.CherryBlossomFestivalSoCal.org)
&
WOW! Event Productions
Presents
A Touring Show
‘CAMP STORIES”
This Show gives ‘voice’ to images and impressions of life before, during, and after the WWII Internment Camps of the Japanese Americans.
Photo: Harumi & Tadashi Fujihara
(www.CherryBlossomFestivalSoCal.org)
&
WOW! Event Productions
Presents
A Touring Show
‘CAMP STORIES”
This Show gives ‘voice’ to images and impressions of life before, during, and after the WWII Internment Camps of the Japanese Americans.
Photo: Harumi & Tadashi Fujihara
From Wendy Fujihara Anderson: Both my parents have passed on. So my impressions of their life before, during, and after are from what they have told me, or my memory of it.
Camp Stories Award Show Honorees
• Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Nisei Poet, Playwright & Actor - Detained at Tule Lake Segregation Center during WWII for refusing to answer registration questions he determined a violation of his civil rights as an American citizen.
• Esther Takei Nishio -Test case in 1944 when she was taken out of camp to attend Pasadena City College where she faced extreme prejudice and hatred while her family was still incarcerated.
• Patty & Emily (6 yrs old) Kinaga – Thousand Hearts Benefit Concert for Japan. Emily seeing the images of Japan with the Tsunami/Earthquake wanted to help the children and asked her mother “what can they do?” What happened - a celebrity studded Thousand Hearts Benefit Concert sending funds and paper hearts to the children of Japan.
• US-Japan Council, TOMODACHI INITIATIVE forged after the Japan Tsunami/Earthquake to invest in Japan’s next generation and deepen U.S.-Japan ties
• Manzanar Fishing Club – Documentary about internees at Manzanar who slipped away under the cover of night to find freedom and adventure, matching wits with the prized trout of the Sierra Nevada to bring fresh fish to internees.
• Toyo Miyatake Studio - Founded in 1923 by famed photographer Toyo Miyatake best known for his collection of Manzanar Relocation Center image. Eventually his son Archie took over and today his grandson, photographer Alan Miyatake, runs the Studio.
• American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization – opened an office in Pasadena during WWII to aid Japanese Americans internees– reached out to colleges and hostels willing to receive evacuees and other essentials to aid the devastated Japanese American community. In 1947, AFSC was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
- My father was one of the artists who carved and created the “Manzanar Sign”.
- My mother attended Manzanar High School and was Homecoming Queen the year the camp closed and there is a beautiful photo of her in the Year Book.
- My parents met in camp.
- My mother was from Terminal Island and Terminal Island was considered a bit rough, so as she dated, she didn’t want “boys” knowing she was from those barracks and would meet dates at her friend’s barracks.
- My mother said she thought the world hated them and the only ones who cared about them were Christians who brought presents at Christmas.
- My father was an artist and hired by a firm after camp, but because he was of Japanese descent, he could not work in the front room with the other artists and had to sit in the back room and they would not let him sign his pieces (ceramics and pottery plates, etc.).
- Prior to camp, my Dad attended Van Nuys High School, and from my recollection, Van Nuys High School was not sure what would happen after the war, so they issued my father a High School diploma early so he would have one.
- Manzanar and the lack of opportunity for an 18 year old when she was released affected my mother deeply. It wasn’t until the late 80’s that she would finally release and open her heart to her experiences in camp.
- After release from the Internment Camps, it’s always ironic that then he becomes a soldier in the United States Army.
Camp Stories Award Show Honorees
• Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Nisei Poet, Playwright & Actor - Detained at Tule Lake Segregation Center during WWII for refusing to answer registration questions he determined a violation of his civil rights as an American citizen.
• Esther Takei Nishio -Test case in 1944 when she was taken out of camp to attend Pasadena City College where she faced extreme prejudice and hatred while her family was still incarcerated.
• Patty & Emily (6 yrs old) Kinaga – Thousand Hearts Benefit Concert for Japan. Emily seeing the images of Japan with the Tsunami/Earthquake wanted to help the children and asked her mother “what can they do?” What happened - a celebrity studded Thousand Hearts Benefit Concert sending funds and paper hearts to the children of Japan.
• US-Japan Council, TOMODACHI INITIATIVE forged after the Japan Tsunami/Earthquake to invest in Japan’s next generation and deepen U.S.-Japan ties
• Manzanar Fishing Club – Documentary about internees at Manzanar who slipped away under the cover of night to find freedom and adventure, matching wits with the prized trout of the Sierra Nevada to bring fresh fish to internees.
• Toyo Miyatake Studio - Founded in 1923 by famed photographer Toyo Miyatake best known for his collection of Manzanar Relocation Center image. Eventually his son Archie took over and today his grandson, photographer Alan Miyatake, runs the Studio.
• American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization – opened an office in Pasadena during WWII to aid Japanese Americans internees– reached out to colleges and hostels willing to receive evacuees and other essentials to aid the devastated Japanese American community. In 1947, AFSC was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.