Category Archives: Books on Japanese America

Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Manzanar Riot, News

In Memoriam: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

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To me she at first was just Jeanne Houston, my housing officer in 1970 at Cowell College in the early days of UC Santa Cruz, a younger Nisei with a sunny smile who seemed more like a peer than administrator. We’d share breakfast in the Cowell Commons and not once did she ever mention camp or the war.

So I was surprised a few years after graduating to learn she’d published her memoir as Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, even more surprised when a TV-movie was announced based on her book. By then I was an acting student in San Francisco and it was amazing to reunite with her and husband James Houston at the audition with John Korty.

two actors in scene
Clyde Kusatsu and Frank Abe in the mess hall scene from the 1976 NBC/Universal film of ‘Farewell to Manzanar.” Cinematography by Hiro Narita, A.S.C.

I will always wonder if she put in a good word for me to be cast as the JACL villain, Frank Nishi, a thinly-disguised version of LA JACL leader Fred Tayama. Here’s my big scene, the mess hall meeting that opens with a line shouted by novelist Shawn Wong. The full movie is available by special arrangement on DVD only from the Japanese American National Museum giftshop:

I researched my role by studying Art Hansen’s groundbreaking essay, “The Manzanar Riot: An Ethnic Perspective,” (reprinted for you to read in his 2018 anthology, Barbed Voices), and the experience continued my journey toward understanding the nature of Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration.

The film aired in an era when you only had three channels to choose from at night, so “Farewell to Manzanar” and the story of the Manzanar revolt commanded the attention of the nation for one evening in March 1976, with fictionalized versions of Harry Ueno and Joe Kurihara brought to life onscreen.

Cast and crew of the film, photo by J.K. Yamamoto
Cast and crew of the film, “Farewell to Manzanar” at a 2001 reunion in San Francisco. Jeanne Houston is fourth from the left. Photo by J.K. Yamamoto

I recently spoke with Jeanne to discuss excerpting her book’s haunting final chapter, “Ten Thousand Voices,” for the postwar section of the Penguin Classics anthology (we later had to trim selections due to space). She said she was thinking of writing a musical based on the camp talent shows at Manzanar. I’m saddened to learn of her passing on December 21. She will be missed, but she leaves a lasting legacy.

logoUPDATES: Thanks to George Toshio Johnston at the Pacific Citizen for reaching out for stories in remembrance of Jeanne:  “Author Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston Dead at 90″

logoAnd going back to my Santa Cruz roots, I spoke about Jeanne with Rachel Anne Goodman for her radio program/podcast “Talk of the Bay.” Tune in Thursday, January 23 at 5:00 pm to KSQD-FM (K-SQUID) or stream the podcast after that date, will post the link.

"Conscience and the Constitution", Art Hansen, Books on Japanese America, Events, Manzanar, Manzanar Riot, News, Reviews

REVIEW: “A Capstone Collection from a Beloved Historian”

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Art Hansen
Photo by David Toshiyuki
audience watching Art
Photo by David Toshiyuki

“A Celebration of Art Hansen” was the centerpiece of the first-ever Nichi Bei Book Fest in San Francisco Japantown on July 27. Art and wife Debbie caught Covid from a cruise the week before so had to join us by Zoom in the Koho Co-Creative Space in the Peace Plaza, but it was still a celebratory event with stories told, tributes made, and city proclamations presented.  Continue reading REVIEW: “A Capstone Collection from a Beloved Historian” →

"No-No Boy", Awards, Books on Japanese America, John Okada, News

Mystery writers honor John Okada at Left Coast Crime convention

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posterIn addition to the presentation of awards for best new mysteries, the writers and fans at the annual Left Coast Crime convention. also recognize a “Ghost of Honor,” someone who is no longer with us who inspires them. For their 2024 Seattle Shakedown convention in Bellevue, the writers and fans recognized novelist John Okada in his centennial year as their Ghost of Honor. Continue reading Mystery writers honor John Okada at Left Coast Crime convention →

Books on Japanese America, News

Postwar resettlement of Japanese Americans in Chicago explored in new mystery

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Virtual Conversations for Clark and Division There was no reason on earth for me to have been born in Cleveland, Ohio, other than the policy of the War Relocation Authority to disperse families released from camp to cities in the East and Midwest.

That’s the untapped history explored by  Edgar Award-winning mystery novelist Naomi Hirahara in her groundbreaking new book CLARK AND DIVISION, centered on the postwar resettlement of Japanese Americans in Chicago. We had a delightful virtual conversation for the Elliott Bay Book Company on August 16:

Continue reading Postwar resettlement of Japanese Americans in Chicago explored in new mystery →

"Conscience and the Constitution", "We Hereby Refuse", Day of Remembrance, Farewell to Manzanar, Muslim ban, News, Screenings, Teachers

Five events for Day of Remembrance 2021

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When we staged the first Day of Remembrance 43 years ago, we had no idea how it would persist to become an invented tradition to be observed wherever Japanese Americans live. This year it’s a weekend more crowded than ever with five events at which I’ve been asked to speak. One consequence of pandemic isolation is the ability to be anywhere with Zoom, so I agreed to two events on Saturday and three on Sunday, covering all angles of resistance to wartime incarceration and the echoes to today:

SEATTLE, WA
Saturday, February 20, 2021, 11:00 am PT
Wing Luke Museum virtual tour of INS Building 

Wing Luke DOR tour logoA key scene in our graphic novel We Hereby Refuse takes place inside the U.S. Immigration Station, on the edge of Seattle’s Chinatown, where 100 immigrant Issei were held after their arrest by the FBI two months after  Pearl Harbor. I’ll join the virtual tour as a guest speaker to show scenes from our book of the detention of Jim Akutsu’s father inside the Immigration Station, and also read from my father’s own memoir about his detention there in the 1930’s. Register here.

SEATTLE, WA
Saturday, February 20, 2021, 2:00 pm PT
Wing Luke Museum online book launch

Wing Luke book launchCopies of our graphic novel won’t be ready for sale until March, but we’re going ahead with the Day of Remembrance launch of We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration. I’ll unpack how the structure of the book and its narrative arc upend the usual expectations around camp stories, Tamiko Nimura will read from a scene with her uncle Hiroshi Kashiwagi, and artists Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki will break down their process. To get the Zoom link to watch, you’ll need to register here.

PUYALLUP, WA
Sunday, February 21, 2021, 1:00 pm PT
Tsuru for Solidary car caravan for Seattle’s Day of Remembrance

Tsuru Seattle 2021 graphicIn advance of a Day of Remembrance car caravan from the Puyallup Fairgrounds to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, I’ve recorded a video greeting that links the first Day of Remembrance at the fairgrounds in 1978 to the ongoing need to press for release of asylum-seekers still held at the GEO Group private prison operated on behalf of ICE. “Another Time, Another Place” is sponsored by Tsuru for Solidarity, La Resistencia, Densho, the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee, Seattle JACL, and Puyallup Valley JACL.

[UPDATE: Here’s the four-minute video greeting from the blog’s YouTube channel]

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MN
Sunday, Feb.  21, 2021, 4:00 – 6:00 pm CT
Twin Cities JACL Day of Remembrance

Twin Cities DOR graphicA Twin Cities coalition is screening Conscience and the Constitution for its Day of Remembrance, after which I’ll join an online discussion with Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Japanese American and Muslim students from the University of Minnesota. Moderated by Twin Cities JACL chapter president Vinicius Taguchi.

[UPDATE: Watch my opening comments and the post-screening discussion, courtesy of the East Freedom Library YouTube channel]

SAN JOSE, CA
Sunday, February 21, 2021, 6:00 pm PT
45th anniversary screening of Farewell to Manzanar
West Wind Capitol Drive-in Theater
3630 Hillcap Avenue

Saving the fun one for last: I was a featured actor in the 1976 TV-movie, Farewell to Manzanar, and was prevailed upon by publisher Kenji Taguma to organize and moderate a virtual cast and crew reunion prior to the COVID-safe screening of the film at a San Jose drive-in theater. We just recorded the Zoom gathering and those in their cars at the screening will hear some truly great stories. It’s sponsored by the Nichi Bei Foundation as the closing night event of its 10th anniversary Films of Remembrance series. Read the Nichi Bei Weekly article about it.

[UPDATE: For the live audience at the drive-in, a 20-minute video was screened. Here is the 28-minute “director’s cut,” produced and edited by Greg Viloria, courtesy of the Nichi Bei Foundation YouTube channel]

Day of Remembrance, Fair Play Committee, Farewell to Manzanar, Heart Mountain, Manzanar, News, Redress, Screenings, Teachers

Video and audio of the year in review

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Happy new year. It was a busy 2013 — so busy that we’re only now catching up to posting new video, audio and images from events of the past year: three panels at the JANM national conference and two fall screenings.

JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSUEUM national conference – July 5, 2013

Arlene Oki, Frank Abe, Yasuko Takezawa
Click on the montage to hear audio from our redress panel, featuring (L to R) Arlene Oki, Frank Abe and Yasuko Takezawa

The museum recently provided an audio recording of our panel on redress and creation of the first Day of Remembrance in Seattle. Click on the montage above to hear about the “Tangled Routes to Japanese American Redress.”

Frank Abe and Jeanne Houston

It was a great pleasure to catch up with an old friend, and my former housing officer at UC Santa Cruz, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. We enjoyed a lively discussion after a screening of her “Farewell to Manzanar,” in which I was forced to relive my on-screen character’s  beating at the hands of one of Hanako Wakatsuski’s uncles, or so she says. The museum website promises an audio file will be forthcoming.

Tak Hoshizaki
Click on the image to hear audio of the panel, “Standing on Principle,” with Heart Mountain resister Tak Hoshizaki (above), Professor Tets Kashima, and author Mary Woodward

In another audio file you can hear Heart Mountain resister Tak Hoshizaki present his fascinating insider’s look at the Fair Play Committee, “Kiyoshi Okamoto and the Four Franks,” which you can also read online here. Joining him in the “Standing on Principle” panel were Professor Tets Kashima and author Mary Woodward.

Thanks to Tracy Kumono for all the sharp photographs from the JANM conference.

FIFE HISTORY MUSUEM: “Rights, Rations, Remembrance” exhibit – October 17, 2013

Fife History Museum audienceOf the hundreds of screenings we’ve done over the years, this one was memorable for the number of Fife residents for whom this history is a living memory, and who brought that energy and interest to the film. This Facebook photo album shows the nearly 100 who joined us for a special evening. Museum director Molly Wilmoth has since moved on, but thanks to her for choosing our film to launch their museum program series.

NAGOMI TEA HOUSE: “Nikkei Heroes” film series – November 2, 2013

Nagomi Tea House posterAnother special program this year was one aimed at the Japanese-speaking community in Seattle. This was the first time in the U..S. that we screened CONSCIENCE with the Japanese subtitles created for the Fukuoka Film Festival in 2001. It was the first event in a ”Nikkei Heroes” film series at the Nagomi Tea House, a new performance venue inside the old Uwajimaya supermarket at 6th and Weller. Our thanks for the support of Uwajimaya owner Tomio Moriguchi and Hokubei Hochi Foundation director Elaine Ko.

Two videos are posted here. The first is a link to my introduction to the film.  The second video, embedded below, captures the Q and A after the screening. The second video begins abruptly after these opening words were already heard:

“As I was growing up, the party line in our community was that our response to the forced expulsion was represented by one of two catchphrases. The first was ‘Shikataganai,’ Japanese for “it can’t be helped.” Passive resignation in the face of injustice. The second was ‘Go For Broke,’ Hawaiian slang for “go all out, give 100 percent.” That just didn’t seem right…. “

The video picks up from there:

Thanks for a busy and productive 2013. Here’s looking forward to what the new year brings.

Art Hansen, Farewell to Manzanar, Frank Chin, Heart Mountain, JACL, Manzanar, Manzanar Riot, Screenings, Teachers

Revisiting “Farewell to Manzanar” and the revolt against the JACL

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The screening and discussion of Farewell to Manzanar this Friday night at the Japanese American National Museum annual conference in Seattle provides an opportunity to share these newly-rediscovered photographs taken by photographer Nancy Wong.

rioters in truck
Extras led by Mako, Lawson Inada, and Frank Chin preparing for the big riot scene in FAREWELL TO MANZANAR. Photo by Nancy Wong.

Nancy shot these on location on the grounds of the former Santa Rita state prison in the summer of 1975 while we were assembled to recreate the Manzanar Riot of December 6, 1942. Mako played “Sam Fukimoto,” the character based on Harry Ueno, the fiery leader of the Kitchen Workers Union whose arrest for the beating of Los Angeles JACL leader Fred Tayama, played in the film by myself as “Frank Nishi,” sparked the Manzanar Riot.

The AIIIEEEEE boys with one actor
Three of the editors of AIIIEEEEE! with the brother of the fourth, posing on the set of FAREWELL TO MANZANAR. (from left) Lawson Inada, Frank Chin, Shawn Wong, Michael Paul Chan. Photo by Nancy Wong.

In my youthful enthusiasm I did not know that first-time film actors should not try rewriting their own lines, but that’s what I did the night before we shot the big mess hall confrontation with Mako/Sam Fukimoto/Harry Ueno — much to the dismay of scene partner Seth Sakai, whom I’d failed to notify and who cursed me after our scene and hurled his gloves in my direction, to the applause of the hundreds of extras in the scene. I have to thank director John Korty for allowing me to make the change. Among the extras were writers Toshio Mori and Shawn Wong.

But I felt compelled to make the scene more specific reading this seminal essay by Art Hansen and David Hacker that reconstructs the actual events in “The Manzanar Riot: An Ethnic Perspective” [4MB], which had recently appeared in the fall 1974 issue of Amerasia Journal.

The piece reveals that one of the fundamental causes of the Manzanar Riot was not, as simplified in the film by Korty, simply a grumbling over sugar stolen from the mess hall. It was more, as mentioned in Conscience and told more fully in Jeanne Houston’s book,  a revolt against the power conferred by the government and the camp administration to the Japanese American Citizens League. As documented in Art and David’s essay, Fred Tayama and internee security chief Kiyoshi Higashi had returned the day before from an emergency meeting of the JACL in Salt Lake City attended by two delegates from each of the ten camps. In that meeting National JACL, enacting its own policies without any ratification or popular vote of the people, resolved to urge the U.S. government to reinstate Selective Service for the Nisei as a means of asserting their U.S. citizenship and proving their loyalty. As Hansen and Hacker wrote: “For the internees — Issei, Kibei, and Nisei — the time had come when something had to be done to prevent the corrosive effects of the JACLers … The events of December 6 were but a logical culmination of developments originating with the administration’s decision to bypass the community’s natural Issei leadership to deal with its own artificially erected JACL hierarchy and to embark on a program of Americanization at the expense of Japanese ethnicity.”

Watch that scene in the film in this light. The revolt against the JACL prefigured the resistance at Heart Mountain and other camps that occurred a year later, when the JACL plea for a Nisei draft was finally granted.

In a somewhat related aside, Frank Chin now claims that Bay Area radical activist and early Black Panther Richard Aoki — recently named as an FBI informant, a charge that’s also been disputed — was there with us on location. I never knew Aoki, but in an email Frank writes, “Remember the first day at Santa Rita? There was a fattish fella in a mustache and tee shirt passing out lemonade. That was Richard Aoki.” He later speculates, “Why was Richard Aoki at the Santa Rita FAREWELL TO MANZANAR shoot? … Aoki might have been getting acquainted with Yellow actors in the parts of camp activists and victims.” Or, maybe he was just there to ladle out refreshments. We may never know.