Foreground

In 1942, President FDR signed executive order 9066, forcing Japanese American citizens into internment camps. Many of those interned citizens were students at USC.One of them, Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi, was an extremely outspoken advocate for Japanese American rights. She wrote several opinion articles to the Daily Trojan in the three months between Pearl Harbor and her internment, aiming to highlight the dedication she and other Nisei had to defending America. “We are real Americans. What else could we be? American born, American educated, loving American tolerance, justice, and equality,” she wrote. Nishi also wired a telegram directly to president FDR himself, just days before he signed executive order 9066. In her telegram, she called the president’s actions an “undemocratic curtailment of constitutional rights and civil liberties.”Tim Yuge, whose uncle Hitoshi Sageshima was also interned during his time at USC, gives us context as to why it was particularly devastating to first generation Japanese Americans for their kids to be forced out of school. Of the 121 Nisei students interned during their time at USC, none were welcome back after their release.

Rodrigo Ontaneda is the founder of reforestation project Maquipucuna. He invited us to his 15,000 acre reserve in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, where he introduced us to communities he’s helped steer away from logging and towards more sustainable ways to use their land. He also discussed some of his largest obstacles, many of which stem from the current and former Ecuadorian governments.Reforesting Ecuador was made in partnership with The Between Worlds Project.Special thanks to Rodrigo Ontaneda, Andrew King, and Brandon Barter.

Jordan Bush is a street performer who plays the banjo at the Santa Monica Farmers market. This episode details my attachment to his music, and follows Jordan as unlikely rivalry forces his disappearance.This episode was reported and produced by me, Evan Jacoby, and co-hosted with Kahve Azarnoush.(After producing this story, I reached out to AJ for his perspective. He declined to comment on the record.)