Podcasts about Japanese Americans

Welcome to Season 6, Episode 39! Our guest today is acclaimed author Autumn Krause. Her books blend fantasy, gothic storytelling, folklore, romance, and history… often with characters trying to find their place in their world while encountering forces much bigger than themselves. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Autumn has described herself as a gothic romantic at heart. She's our first guest who has worked in the bridal industry, a background she talks about a little in the conversation. Her experience as a bridal gown stylist in Beverly Hills helped inspire her first novel, A Dress for the Wicked, published in 2019, which transported the glamour and competition of high fashion into a fantastical Victorian-inspired world. She's also the author of Before the Devil Knows You're Here, that combines American folklore, horror, romance, and Mexican American identity in a reimagining of legends like Johnny Appleseed as well as Grave Flowers, that is a gothic fantasy filled with twin princesses, murder, court intrigue, and some very dangerous flowers. Her latest work, The Gods Will Sing Our Song mixes mythology, history, romance, and her own Japanese American family story. Set during the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, the novel has already earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal. The story follows Ren and Violet, two teenagers who have varying outlooks on life, family, and more. As they meet and grow closer during their time at Manzanar, they also encounter supernatural beings, racism, Japanese folklore, and ancient magic. In our conversation, we talk about Autumn's background, what inspired her to write The Gods Will Sing Our Song, what she hopes readers get out of it, her family's experience in the Gila River "camp", the challenges of writing a dual perspective book, and so much more. To learn more about Autumn, you can visit her website autumnkrause.com, follow her on instagram @autumn__krause, and purchase The Gods Will Sing Our Song. Don't forget to checkout the Conversation Resources which are great for the classroom or for the family. Enjoy the Conversation. If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or our links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com.

In Episode 615, host Ken Fong sits down with Japanese American activist, scholar, and author Dr. Scott Kurashige to discuss his latest book, American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism (University of California Press). Drawing from 36 years of academic study, grassroots organizing, and his own family's history with wartime incarceration, Scott unpacks the sweeping history of anti-Asian violence in America and offers crucial insights for the movement for justice today. 

Francis Fukuyama, a leading public intellectual—including repeated popular appearances at the Club—is well-known for his significant, bestselling works of political philosophy and history. Now, for the first time, he examines his own political and intellectual evolution across five transformative decades.  In his new memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man, Fukuyama invites us to follow him from the circle of students around the conservative intellectual Allan Bloom at Cornell, into the halls of power in Washington and at the RAND Corporation, and into private conversations with world leaders from Muammar Qaddhafi to China's powerful elite. Fukuyama touches on his family's story, including his relatives' internment during World War II along with other Japanese Americans. And, in surprisingly personal terms, he reflects on the experiences that led him to reevaluate his own thinking, most notably his dramatic public break with the neoconservative movement over the invasion of Iraq. Join us as Francis Fukuyama returns to the Commonwealth Club World Affairs stage to share his look at his own personal history as political history―the story of a life that illuminates the troubled fate of democracy and liberalism over the last 50 years. Returning to and developing the concepts that have been central to his work―recognition, thymos, trust, identity, human nature, institutions, and the Last Man―Fukuyama brings the depth and richness of personal experience and pathbreaking scholarship to illuminate the crises of the 21st century. Come see how a major thinker grapples in real time with the convulsions of history—and looks ahead to our possible future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1945 TRINITY TESTGhosts Of Hiroshima Uncovers Atomic HistoryCharles Pellegrino, author of Ghosts of Hiroshima, traces the origin of nuclear weapons from theoretical physics concepts to the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He compares the 27-kiloton Nagasaki bomb to Hiroshima's smaller device, explaining how intense heat, shockwaves, and toxic black rain caused long-term genetic damage and lingering fatalities. Pellegrino chronicles the lives of double-survivors (hibakusha) like Tsutomu Yamaguchiand Kenshi Hirata, who endured both blasts yet faced intense social ostracization in post-war Japan. The narrative also covers the forced internment and unjust deportation of Japanese-American families back to devastated Hiroshima ruins. (8)

CAPTION 1900 BAKU.California Coastline Destruction And Economic ShiftsJeff Bliss highlights severe coastal erosion along Southern California beaches during El Niño storms, noting how homeowners unsuccessfully battle nature despite strict Coastal Commission permit restrictions. Fuel prices in California have reached record highs, with low-grade gasoline exceeding six dollars per gallon and diesel climbing over eight to ten dollars, forcing gas stations to update tote boards. Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass discussed jurisdiction confusion between state and city lands during the Pacific Palisades fire. In Las Vegas, the old Royal Resort was demolished to make way for a parking lot. Furthermore, major entertainment companies like Paramount and tech firms are exiting California for business-friendly states like Tennessee. (1)Navigating Canada Trade Relations With AmericaConrad Black examines Canada's evolving trade dynamics following the Prime Minister's address to the European Parliament advocating for broader international partnerships. While expanding trade with Europe is positive, Black emphasizes Canada's deep economic vulnerability, given that nearly half of its GDP is tied to trade with the United Statescompared to just three percent for America. President Trump's rhetoric suggests America could produce goods domestically, threatening Canadian market access. To maintain competitiveness, Black supports internal economic reforms, such as reducing federal civil service numbers, offering corporate tax cuts, and bolstering industries like filmmaking. Ultimately, Canada must expand global trade while maintaining strong American relations. (2)Congress Must Aid Fed Against InflationVeronique de Rugy argues that the Federal Reserve cannot defeat inflation solely by raising interest rates without fiscal assistance from Congress. Higher interest rates increase national debt service payments, which have surged from $250 billion to over one trillion dollars, fueling further inflation through government borrowing. Drawing historical parallels to Paul Volcker in the 1980s, she highlights how monetary tightening requires legislative spending cuts and structural tax or Social Security reforms. With the US debt-to-GDP ratio now exceeding 100% and the Social Security trust fund facing depletion by 2032, Congress must exercise fiscal responsibility rather than relying on endless borrowing. (3)Inflation Drives Divided Spending In PennsylvaniaJim McTague shares observations on inflation while traveling across Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, illustrating a bifurcated K-shaped economy. High gasoline prices, averaging over $4.20 to $4.39 per gallon, are heavily squeezing lower-income families and reducing convenience store spending. Conversely, wealthier residents and affluent tourists continue spending heavily at specialty venues, such as Groff's butcher shop in Elizabethtown and boutique stores in Lititz. While local meat suppliers and pretzel shops report booming demand, even prosperous shoppers are beginning to display subtle penny-pinching habits on expensive goods like artisanal chocolates, reflecting widespread pressure from sustained energy costs. (4)Borgotaro Celebrates Porcini Mushrooms And CultureLorenzo Fiori explores Borgotaro in the Italian province of Parma, calling it the capital of porcini mushrooms owing to its rich forests, varying altitudes, and unique microclimate. He describes local culinary highlights, recommending pairings of dark and light porcini varieties preserved in olive oil alongside authentic Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Parma ham, and ciabatta bread. Fiori highlights government initiatives encouraging travelers to visit smaller historic towns to relieve over-tourism pressures in major cities like Rome and Florence. Despite recent hot weather across Europe, localized late-afternoon thunderstorms, high humidity, and a rising moon have produced optimal conditions for a plentiful mushroom harvest. (5)Sudan Conflict Faces Foreign Power InterferenceHussain Abdul-Hussain details the ongoing civil war in Sudan between General Burhan's Sudanese Armed Forces(SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces. Foreign powers are actively influencing the conflict; Turkey supports the SAF through Muslim Brotherhood ties and drone strikes launched from Egyptian airfields. At the UN Security Council, the United States, France, and Britain are advocating for an expanded, nationwide arms embargo. However, Russia and China oppose the measure, with Russia eyeing strategic Red Sea port access and gold exports. With neither side capable of controlling the vast territory, the war has reached a stalemate, resulting in a de facto partition. (6)Syria Resolves Nuclear Noncompliance Case InvestigationAndrea Stricker discusses the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unanimously closing Syria's formal nuclear non-compliance finding from 2011 after Damascus permitted access to historical nuclear sites. Inspectors visited the destroyed Al-Kibar reactor at Deir ez-Zor and Site 99, where they uncovered 73 tons of undeclared natural uranium metal, fuel rods, and a graphite moderator. While placing these materials under safeguards represents positive progress, critical questions persist regarding North Korean assistance, potential plutonium reprocessing, and untracked equipment. Consequently, the United States emphasizes that the IAEA investigation remains incomplete and demands detailed further reporting from the Director General. (7)Ghosts Of Hiroshima Uncovers Atomic HistoryCharles Pellegrino, author of Ghosts of Hiroshima, traces the origin of nuclear weapons from theoretical physics concepts to the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He compares the 27-kiloton Nagasaki bomb to Hiroshima's smaller device, explaining how intense heat, shockwaves, and toxic black rain caused long-term genetic damage and lingering fatalities. Pellegrino chronicles the lives of double-survivors (hibakusha) like Tsutomu Yamaguchiand Kenshi Hirata, who endured both blasts yet faced intense social ostracization in post-war Japan. The narrative also covers the forced internment and unjust deportation of Japanese-American families back to devastated Hiroshima ruins. (8)Saudi Nuclear Ambitions Spark Congressional OversightHenry Sokolski analyzes the controversial US-Saudi nuclear cooperation agreement, which permits Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium domestically. Congressional leaders from both parties are demanding transparency regarding classified documents stored in Capitol facilities that conceal vendor lists and fuel supply terms. (9)Commercial Space Operations Advance Rapidly WorldwideBob Zimmerman reviews commercial space developments, beginning with SpaceX's upcoming Starship 14 orbital test flight designed to deploy 26 Starlink version 3 satellites. (10)

California agriculture is facing growing pressure from labor shortages, immigration uncertainty, water challenges, rising production costs and an increasingly complicated regulatory environment. On the AgNet News Hour, “The Ag Meter” Nick Papagni sat down with Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League, for a wide-ranging conversation about the challenges facing California farmers and the future of the state's agricultural industry. Papagni opened the program by discussing several issues affecting agriculture, including rising California fuel prices, concerns about diesel costs and the potential role of propane as an alternative for some farm operations. He also touched on trade tensions involving Canada and their potential impact on California wine and citrus. In the almond industry, Papagni noted that prices were climbing as the crop appeared to be coming in lighter than expected, while California shipments reached 190 million pounds in August, up 20 percent from the previous year, with exports leading the way. The conversation with Cunha quickly turned to agricultural labor and immigration. Cunha argued that California farmers need a reliable workforce and that the current immigration system does not adequately address the needs of agriculture or other labor-intensive industries. He discussed the Dignity Act as one potential framework for providing legal work authorization to people already contributing to the U.S. economy without automatically granting citizenship. He also called for industry-specific visa programs that reflect actual workforce needs rather than arbitrary limits. Cunha said a workable system should establish legal pathways for workers to enter the country, provide employment authorization for qualified people already here and eventually require employers to participate in E-Verify. He also discussed the continuing role of human smugglers, or “coyotes,” saying migrants can pay approximately $15,000 to $20,000 per person to cross the border and that the system can involve extortion and human trafficking. In his view, creating legal avenues for workers would provide a safer and less expensive alternative. The interview also highlighted the contributions of longtime immigrant workers in agriculture, construction, restaurants, housing and other industries. Cunha expressed concern about workers who have spent decades contributing to the economy while remaining without permanent legal status. He argued that immigration policy should distinguish between hardworking individuals contributing to their communities and those who commit serious crimes. Another major issue was the regulatory burden facing California farmers. Cunha said agricultural producers must deal with more than 65 regulatory agencies and hundreds of rules covering areas such as labor, workplace safety, water, environmental requirements and county regulations. He argued that the cumulative burden can consume valuable time and make it increasingly difficult for family farms to remain viable. Water was another central concern. Cunha said California must address its groundwater crisis while also developing additional water storage and recharge opportunities. He argued that farmers are already doing their part and that policymakers need to consider how water infrastructure and regulation affect the long-term viability of agriculture. Perhaps the most important concern raised during the interview was the future of the next generation of farmers. Cunha shared the story of a 103-year-old Japanese American farmer who remains engaged in her operation and still follows raisin prices. He worries that younger people may look at the regulatory, labor and water challenges their parents and grandparents face and decide that farming is no longer worth pursuing. The discussion ultimately connects labor, immigration, water and regulation to a much larger question: Can California continue to support a strong agricultural industry while maintaining the systems designed to protect workers, consumers and natural resources? There is much more to this powerful conversation. Listen to the full AgNet News Hour podcast featuring Nick Papagni and Manuel Cunha for the complete discussion on California farm labor, immigration reform, coyotes, E-Verify, water, regulations and the future of family farming. Listen to the full interview below or on your favorite podcast app.

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk www.LearningLeader.com The Price of Becoming is a USA Today, LA Times, and Publishers Weekly National Best-Seller! www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. My Guest: Daniel Lubetzky graduated from Stanford Law School. And then declined lucrative job offers to start his own business, only paying himself $24,000 a year for a decade. And then he founded KIND and grew it into a snack brand that Mars later valued at $5 billion dollars. Today he invests full-time on Shark Tank, and he's the son of a Holocaust survivor whose story shaped everything he's built. Find work that gives you energy, purpose, and meaning. If you enjoy what you're doing, you're far more likely to be great at it. And you're already winning, because you get up every morning doing something satisfying. The danger of loving your work is overworking. Daniel did it building PeaceWorks and KIND. You have to pace yourself. His father survived a death march out of Dachau. Twelve and a half when he entered the camp, fifteen and a half during the march. Six feet tall and under 70 pounds, and no shoes. The Nazis were walking prisoners up a mountain to push them off a cliff because they didn't have enough bullets. A snowstorm saved his life. His father, grandfather, and uncle hugged to say goodbye. The snow buried them and formed a kind of igloo that kept them warm through the night. They woke, dug out, and the Nazis were gone. The soldiers who liberated them were Japanese American. The 442nd, the most decorated unit of its size in American history, was made up of men whose own families were being held in internment camps back home. Daniel's family had never seen an Asian person and didn't understand what they were witnessing. Seventy years later, he got to say thank you. A friend called saying they were sitting with a doctor who had a postcard from Larry Lubetzky. That was Daniel's uncle, who had just died. Daniel reconnected with the captain, who had gone on to become a scientist at Harvard, and eventually gave a eulogy at his funeral. The lesson he takes from it isn't perseverance. It's the power of one person to change another person's life. You won't pull off a rescue every day. You can still look someone in the eye at the supermarket. "You have no idea what that person's been going through." Human connection is what pulls people back. At a conference on fighting hate, Daniel heard how young people vulnerable to recruitment were pulled back by ordinary human connection. Being kind in your daily life makes it harder for the people trying to recruit them. There's no such thing as failure or success. Daniel keeps shelves of successes in one office and shelves of failures in another, and now thinks the separation is a mistake. He never would have built KIND without ten years of mistakes at PeaceWorks. PeaceWorks was a college thesis turned into a company. The argument: get neighbors on opposite sides of a conflict doing business together, and you shatter stereotypes, build relationships, and give both sides a stake in each other. He got Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, and Turks trading with one another. Daniel turned down $86,000 out of Stanford Law to pay himself $24,000. That's what he could afford, and it's what he paid his team. Grit, wit, and fit. Grit is the work ethic and refusing to give up. Wit is the strategy, the creativity to outthink competitors. Fit is whether the product actually matches what people want. Grit alone isn't enough. Do not assume he was invincible. He cried alone in his studio apartment more than once, convinced he'd made a mistake and was wasting his life. He questioned himself multiple times a day. The jerk who broke him was also right. At a trade show, a buyer told him to stop, that he was way too pushy, to give people space and get out of his life. Daniel was 25 and it broke him. Then he reflected and realized the man was correct. Don't be the ultra-passive person watching the world happen. Don't be the person who only pushes. The job is to be persistent enough to win and be loved for it, which is very hard. "I prepare for anything that I'm not prepared for." Daniel loves winging it and hates preparing. But if there's something he doesn't know, he'll put in the work today, tomorrow, and the day after. Active listening takes real energy. Daniel needs an hour to decompress after every interview he conducts. He's blunt that listening isn't his greatest strength, which is exactly why he's leaning into it. His dad was the best interviewer he ever knew, because he was a coach. When Daniel asked him a question, his father would answer with another question and let him find it himself. A great coach or parent doesn't tell you what to do. They help you ask the questions you need to ask yourself. Telling is the easier skill. Kids keep you humble, and that's the point. You need someone in your life who can call you out when you start thinking too much of yourself, whether that's your kids, your spouse, or your team. KIND started because the healthy snack aisle didn't exist. Training for the 2002 New York City Marathon, Daniel's options were food that tasted like astronaut rations or pure indulgence. Nothing was portable, wholesome, and convenient at the same time. KIND was named after his father, who died the year they launched. Everyone who met him described him the same way. He saw his mission in life as bringing smiles to others. The name became the three pillars: kind to your body, kind to your taste buds, kind to the world. They took a vote on whether to quit. Six or seven people around a table, ten hard years behind them, a major account just lost. The choice was one more shot or two months to go find jobs. They all voted to try again. Then KIND launched. Sampling was the inflection point. Daniel had been treating it as a cost. It was an investment. They went from $800 in 2008 to $800,000 in 2009 to $20 million in free product within a few years, which is what let them scale. Sampling only works if the mousetrap is right. If one in ten people like it, you'll lose your shirt. Nine in ten people who tried a KIND bar wanted to buy more. Those people became the ambassadors. Scarcity, gluttony, and resourcefulness. A wasteful culture runs you into the ground. A scarcity mentality preserves every dollar but caps your potential, because everything looks like a cost center. Resourcefulness is the middle: think like an owner, spend less where you can, and invest where it compounds. Nice and kind are not the same thing. "If you're nice, it doesn't cost you. It's easy. You can be weak and nice. But to be kind, you need to be strong." Kindness requires you to be a protagonist. What Daniel looks for in a founder: Integrity. If he doesn't trust them, no amount of upside matters. Someone worth helping. It's going to be a rollercoaster, and he'll be in the trenches with them. Real passion. Enough that he can sense they'll outwork everyone else. You don't find integrity by asking about integrity. You ask other questions and watch how the person performs. Daniel says Barbara Corcoran is the best on the show at reading people this way. The four C's of a builder's mindset: curious, compassionate, creative, and courageous. Daniel credits them with building KIND, the OneVoice Movement, and everything since. Daniel's champagne moment a year from now: the Builders Movement making real progress. His argument is that every industry has a lobby representing it, and the only group without one is the overwhelming majority of citizens who agree with each other on most issues and want problems solved. He wants a movement that holds all parties and all special interests accountable to that majority. A scarcity mindset versus an abundance mindset. Viewing something as a cost instead of viewing it as an investment. This was Daniel's early mistake with Kind bars. He only budgeted $800 a year for samples. He viewed it as a cost. He changed his mind and realized it was an investment. He upped it to $800,000 per year in samples. And eventually to $20 million a year. Scarcity versus abundance. View it as an investment instead of a cost Daniel's 4 C's of a builder's mindset – curiosity, compassion, creativity, and courage for That's how you build both a company and a movement.  The difference between being nice and being kind. Being nice avoids conflict to protect feelings in the moment. Being kind is about being willing to risk the moment, telling the hard truth because you actually care about them. His dad, grandfather, and uncle – Near the end of the war, Roman, his father, and his brother were death-marched out of Dachau toward the mountains, where the guards meant to push them off a cliff. A freak overnight blizzard scattered the guards; by morning they were gone. The men who found the survivors were the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion — the only all–Japanese–American unit in the U.S. Army, many of whose own families were sitting in American internment camps at that very moment. Daniel has said those soldiers showed a tenderness that "had not been seen in 1945." Magic – Daniel taught himself magic as a kid in Mexico City and actually worked as a traveling magician through Europe and the Middle East for the better part of a year. He still performs one magic show a year for his team... And he's said it's the only thing all year he genuinely prepares for. Everything else, he improvises. "My team is always very concerned that I just jump into stuff." A scarcity mindset versus an abundance mindset. Viewing something as a cost instead of viewing it as an investment. This was Daniel's early mistake with Kind bars. He only budgeted $800 a year for samples. He viewed it as a cost. He changed his mind and realized it was an investment. He upped it to $800,000 per year in samples. And eventually to $20 million a year. Scarcity versus abundance. View it as an investment instead of a cost. Reflection Questions Where in your work are you all grit and no wit or fit? What would change if you spent an hour on strategy before your next hundred hours of effort? Think of the harshest feedback you've ever received. Set aside how it was delivered. Was any of it correct, and what did you do with it? Where in your life are you being nice when the situation calls for you to be kind?

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Today there's an entire generation that only knows the World Trade Center as an emblem of tragedy. But people sometimes forget that the World Trade Center, designed by Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, was a very complicated addition to the New York skyline when it officially opened in 1973.While it might be fun to think of New York City in the 1970s through the lens of places like Studio 54 or CBGB, the Twin Towers were what really redefined New York.The journey to build the world's tallest building and its expansive complex of office towers and underground shops began in an effort by David Rockefeller to stimulate development in Manhattan's fading Financial District. By the time Port Authority got on board to fund the project, the Twin Towers were bonded together with another vital project — a commuter train from New Jersey.The World Trade Center inspired strong opinions from critics and the public alike, but eventually many grew to admire the strange towers which marked the skyline.And for some, the Twin Towers became objects of obsession.FEATURING: The insane, completely outlandish and ultimately successful feat of acrobatics by a very bold French tightrope walker.PLUS: An interview with Kate Monaghan Connolly of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum about how that institution memorializes those lost in the tragedy while still celebrating the technological marvels that once stood there. And visit our website for more historical images of the Twin Towers.This show was recorded in 2021 for the 20th anniversary, reedited and remastered by Kieran Gannon. We have a batch of brand new episodes of the Bowery Boys starting next week. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Monocle’s Tyler Brûlé, Anita Riotta and Chris Cermak reflect on the 25th anniversary of September 11. Plus: the Japanese-American artist, Miya Ando, who designed London’s September 11 memorial.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us Fan MailWhen John Okada published No-No Boy in 1957, it was met by the Japanese American community with silence, discomfort, and outright rejection. Okada passed away in 1971 believing his novel was a failure, unaware that it would later be rediscovered and hailed as a foundational classic of Asian American literature. In this episode, Koji and Michelle are joined by author, filmmaker, and historian Frank Abe—author of the biography John Okada: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy and director of the PBS documentary Conscience and the Constitution. Frank shares what it was like to accidentally become the cover model for the iconic 1976 CARP edition, how Okada drew inspiration from real-life draft resister Jim Akutsu, the critical historical differences between "No-No Boys" and draft resisters, and the tragic story behind Okada's lost second novel. Plus, Frank discusses his current work adapting No-No Boy for the stage at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, followed by reflections on community trauma, healing, and post-war identity. About Frank AbeFrank Abe is a Sansei author, filmmaker, and journalist who has spent decades unearthing and preserving essential stories of Japanese American resistance and literary history. He wrote and directed the landmark PBS documentary Conscience and the Constitution, which chronicles the organized draft resistance at the Heart Mountain concentration camp. Abe is the co-editor of the anthology John Okada: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press) and The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration (Penguin Classics), as well as co-author of the graphic novel We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration. An early member of the Asian American Theater Workshop and collaborator with CARP (Combined Asian American Resources Project) in San Francisco, Abe famously served as the cover model for the groundbreaking 1976 republication of No-No Boy. He is currently developing a 21st-century stage adaptation of No-No Boy in collaboration with the Seattle Repertory Theatre. To learn more about Frank's background, browse his published books, and screen his documentary work, visit resisters.com/frank-abe-bio.Follow & Support UsEnjoyed the episode! Don't forget to rate, review, and tell a friend!CREDITSThe music was created by Jalen BlankWritten by Koji Steven SakaiHosts: Michelle Malazaki and Koji Steven SakaiEdited by Koji Steven SakaiProduced by Koji Steven Sakai in conjunction with the Japanese American National MuseumSupport the show

The 442 and 100 Battalion were two of the most decorated combat regiments in World War II. Composed of Japanese Americans who had volunteered to serve on the front lines in Italy and France they were exemplary soldiers. Most of them had left behind families who had been interned/incarcerated under Executive Order 9066. Yet in the face of such trying circumstances and suspected by the US Government as potential sympathizers or collaborators they went off to serve honorably.

Send us Fan MailToday we're bringing you our deep dive coverage for The Gods Will Sing Our Song as the follow up to our extremely impactful author interview with young adult romantasy author Autumn Krause. Autumn is the author of four novels (so far): A Dress for the Wicked, Before the Devil Knows You're Here, Grave Flowers, and OUT NOW… her very timely and extremely important fourth novel The Gods Will Sing Our Song, inspired by her own family's experiences in the World War 2 Japanese American Incarceration Camps.We met the lovely and beautiful Autumn at Romantasycon LA where we had the privilege of interviewing her for the Gothica panel, chatting all things horror, dark fantasy, and gothic themes and just knew she was an instant bestie with a big message to share. We encourage you all to pick up this book and experience the perfect balance of fantasy storytelling and real-world history, and listen to our previous interview with Autumn to learn about her family's experiences and the impact Japanese American incarceration during World War 2 had on this book. We give our star and spice ratings, least and most favorites, five sentence summary, and discuss the important tie-ins with real US history, the balance of reality and lived experience with fantasy and folklore, and even go over important facts we should all know. Recently an offering editor at auction described The Gods Will Sing Our Song as a book that changes the way we look at the world. They said that “Books like these have the power to break our hearts and remake them. They open our eyes to injustice and bring a sense of catharsis to those who've encountered its sharp edge. They shout to be seen and heard and remembered - just as we must remember those who came before us, whose joys and scars go on to guide our own life stories. In my opinion, The Gods Will Sing Our Song is exactly such a book.” And we could not agree more. Don't be shy, subscribe! New Podcasts every Tuesday!! (And sometimes Friday!…)Shop our Merch line | *  https://besties-and-the-books-shop.fourthwall.comCheck out these narrator interviews? ⬇️Anthony Palmini gives us the lowdown on what it's like to voice act Rhysand, Kingfisher, AND Slade Ravinger! https://youtu.be/zcCyrlZ5Jcc?si=2k7ULbRPgZl_5pUJCheck out these author interviews? ⬇️We go behind the book with Autumn Krause and The Gods Will Sing Our Song https://youtu.be/656QHeao6F4?si=VMLZ-zAa6pltOio9THE Sheila Masterson yaps with us about going trad & her NYT Bestseller The Poison Daughter! Don't miss it! https://youtu.be/V9MpoOX3CyQ?si=e2uOKPVRQjsIhVCbWe interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! Watch it here! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4Check the official Follow Up Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of the Split or Swallow Universe all about Between Two Kings! https://youtu.be/OW1cxXTVcTc?si=oOxVIzbIheET_bNE____Shop Bookish Merch we are wearing:Ashley is wearing: A shirt from Gideon's Bakehouse | https://merch.gideonsbakehouse.com/Liz is wearing : A Down the Bond Starborn Crop Tee | Code: Bestiesandthebooks https://www.downthebond.comAny link with an * is an affiliate link through the service Magic Links and is eligible for a commission to us with no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping support our podcast!Support the showYouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Podcast Platforms@BestiesandtheBooksPodcast Besties and the Book Club on Fable!https://fable.co/bestiesandthebookclub-474863489358Liz Instagram | TikTok@TheRealLifeVeganWife AshleyInstagram | TikTok@AshleyEllix

Dr. Stephanie J. Wong & David Mura discuss his new book, Exit, Miss Saigon, which explores the evolution of his understanding of his racial identity as a Japanese American man. Specifically, he has ended friendships with White artists due to their differing perspectives on the Miss Saigon casting. He also credits his friendships with BIPOC artists for helping him gain a different insight into racial identity. As an activist, David formed an Asian American arts organization.  ========================================== Full Bio:  David Mura is an award winning Japanese American author. His memoirs, poems, essays, plays and performances have won wide critical praise. The topics range from contemporary Japan to the legacy of the internment camps and the history of Japanese Americans in increasing American diversity. His work reflects deeply on the world's current events, which at times create spaces of division and unrest. His new book. Exit Miss Saigon, though not a memoir, is deeply autobiographical. It tells how David transformed from what could be termed a "banana"—yellow on the outside, white on the inside—into an Asian American writer. This transformation involved breaking up with white artist friends over the racism in Miss Saigon; it involved building a local Asian American arts organization and connecting with Asian American artists nationwide. 

Supreme Court Decisions That Sucked Episode #2 of 4. In 1942, the U.S. government rounded up citizens and forced them into concentration camps. Between the two countries, over 140,000 people were removed from their home and interned without legal recourse. In many cases, their captors--the U.S. military--sold off their houses, businesses, and belongings for a fraction of their worth, or their former neighbors simply took what they wanted. Many, many scholars have demonstrated that the forced internment of Japanese American internment camps was racially motivated. That wasn't a secret. Lawyers and activists were writing about the injustices of Japanese internment at the time it was happening. And that racism was made precedent in 1944, when the US Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Fred Korematsu, a birthright American citizen, who tried to remain in his home in the months after General John L. De Witt declared that people of Japanese descent were to be shipped to a holding center. In today's episode, the USSC decision that sucked is Korematsu vs. United States 323 U.S. 214. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on APEX Express, Host Miko Lee is going Beneath the Surface — with two incredible artists, Margaret Cho and Masaki Fujihata. Both artists have been working in their fields for decades. Margaret Cho — stand-up comedy, sitcom, filmmaking, writing. Masaki Fujihata — a pioneer in new media art.And here's what they have in common: they've both shifted with the times… but never lost their own voice. Their vision has stayed singular, even as the world around them changed. Listen in to APEX Express   Check out: BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration at the Oakland Museum from Friday, September 18, 2026—Sunday, December 27, 2026 Masaki Fujihata website Choligarchy at Berkeley Rep, September 15-19th, 2026  Margaret Cho website Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, September 11, 2026 7pm Artists featured: arjun-verma.com www.pezhham.com  MazdakAlipour.com emanhashimi.com   Show Transcripts [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   [00:00:34] Miko Lee: Tonight on Apex Express, I'm going beneath the surface with two incredible artists, Margaret Cho and Masaki Fujihata. I'm your host, Miko Lee.   [00:00:57] These are two artists who've been working in their fields for decades. Margaret Cho, stand-up comedy, sitcom, filmmaking, writing, and Masaki Fujihata, a pioneer in new media art. And here's what they have in common. They've both shifted with the times, but they never lost their own voice. Their vision has stayed singular, even as the world around them have changed. So stick with me. First up, my conversation with Margaret Cho   [00:01:29] Welcome Margaret Cho to Apex Express.    [00:01:32] Margaret Cho: Thank you.    [00:01:34] Miko Lee: I wanna start with my question I ask most of my guests, which is who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:01:41] Margaret Cho: I think my people are Asian American, my people are queer, my people are all ages, my people are progressive, my people have hope for the future. That's what I'm hoping. I think that's it, and that's who I am too.    [00:01:56] Miko Lee: Thank you. You started stand-up so young in this very Bay Area, and I think you started at age 14. I'm wondering what's your earliest childhood memory of being a performer?    [00:02:08] Margaret Cho: My earliest childhood memory of being a performer was I was actually a singer. I was a singer in a band of children, and I was probably maybe five years old. We were on a show on KTVU. I believe it was called Asia Now, and it was filming in the studio and I wouldn't stop waving at my mother, who was just off camera. And after the performance the band leaders asked me not to come back. Aw. I remember that because I could not stop waving at my mother and so I kept breaking that fourth wall. That was my first memories of performance.   [00:02:47] Miko Lee: And what did that feel like to you?    [00:02:50] Margaret Cho: I didn't really get the idea. I didn't really understand television exactly quite. I didn't understand why we were performing. I didn't understand why I couldn't say hi to my mother while I was performing. I didn't have a real comprehension of like even like rejection of what that meant or even performance or what that meant or television. So all these things that I come to learn about very well, rejection, performance, and television is my whole life. But back then I didn't understand the importance of all those things.    [00:03:22] Miko Lee: But there must've been some kind of zhuzh for you that you said, “Ooh, I wanna keep doing this,” right?    [00:03:28] Margaret Cho: Yeah, I think so. Much later though, you know, I did perform as a pianist. I was a classical pianist. I was also a ballet dancer. So those things required performance, which actually would make me really, really nervous, I think because in piano you're playing a classical piece. You're playing Beethoven, you're playing Mozart. So if you make a mistake, everybody's gonna know. Also with ballet you're choreographed and you're in as a troupe. If you're doing choreography with a bunch of other people- If you make a mistake, everybody's gonna know. But with comedy, mistakes are a little bit more of, something you can gloss over a bit. There's a little more control there, a little more room for chaos, which I absolutely need, I think, as a performer.   [00:04:22] Miko Lee: Mm, this is interesting. You've already described some of the different types of performance that you do, and you've also done so many things in your life. But I'm wondering if there is a type of art form that still makes you nervous.    [00:04:34] Margaret Cho: Music. I think playing an instrument in front of people, I think because when I was a child and would perform these recitals, I would be so nervous. There were a couple of times in recitals where I had to start over, you know? When you're, like, eight or nine years old and you make a mistake and have to start over, and this audience is, like, hundreds of people, it's, like, really mortifying. I still carry that. I play m- numerous instruments, and I really dread playing them in public. What helped me a little bit is busking, which I did quite a lot of over, over the years because when you're playing out on the street, there's a… I don't know. It's like people are not really paying attention to you, and therefore you're kind of in this divide of I'm in performance, but I'm also kind of not. So that helped. In general, I refrain nowadays from when I do music, I don't usually play my instrument along with the band. I usually just focus on singing. Even that is quite nerve-wracking. Singing and doing music still, even though I've been doing it really my whole life, there is something about it that, that quite, um… because when you're singing, you're actually also the instrument. So there's a bit of more required. That's why I always prefer comedy. Your quality of voice doesn't matter because the music you're making doesn't have to sound pleasing.    [00:05:59] Miko Lee: And when you were busking, what instrument were you playing?   [00:06:02] Margaret Cho: Guitar. Ah. So I would play guitar, sometimes a six-string banjo, sometime, I'd play all manner of sort of guitar-necked instruments, which can go from, guitar to mandolin to a cello that's, it has a guitar neck, so I can play- Ah that as well. So all those things, I cheat at everything 'cause I have a guitar neck.    [00:06:21] Miko Lee: I love that. The improv just comes out of you in all different ways, I guess.    [00:06:27] Margaret Cho: Yeah.   [00:06:27] Miko Lee: So you have been a path maker, rule breaker in so many aspects of your life, from comedy obviously, and producing and starring in the first Asian American TV show, actor, fashion maven, author, rapper, podcast host, and out and proud queer role model. I'm wondering, what's a career dream that you aspire to?    [00:06:46] Margaret Cho: Ooh, well, I wanna be an old lady crime show, like Murder She Wrote. I wanna just solve crimes. I love, like, a British crime show, like an old lady solving crime. Like a Prime Suspect, like a Helen Mirren. I love that kind of genre of television, and so I would love to mature in that 'cause, like, it's so interesting and also so rich and, I feel really drawn to it. So that's something that I haven't… I'm a participant in a lot of those types of shows. I'm on a show called Bull Trent, which is very much that, which is really cool. And then I've been on Law & Order, which is the ultimate, SVU is the ultimate sort of crime show. So I would love to engage in that genre more.   [00:07:31] Miko Lee: Ooh, are you developing that on your own?    [00:07:34] Margaret Cho: I'm not, but I am participating in lots of other people's versions of it. They're not out yet, so they will be coming, forthcoming.    [00:07:44] Miko Lee: Coming soon, and then your own version starring you. Yes. The- Yeah … modern Murder She Wrote. I would love it. In what town would this be? In San Francisco or in-    [00:07:53] Margaret Cho: Oh, San Francisco would be great. Yeah. San Francisco or, like, Marin.    [00:07:56] Miko Lee: Oh, God. That would be really funny.    [00:07:58] Margaret Cho: Sausalito. Sausalito would be so fun. You know, Napa Valley. You know, something, like, very, like, th- this community that looks very, like Saint Helena, like Calistoga, s- community that's very quaint and peaceful and, like, kind of like foodie oriented and, like, very, you, you know, you think very upscale, but actually there's a lot of dirty dealings going on underneath the surface.   [00:08:20] Miko Lee: The wine country Murder She Wrote.    [00:08:23] Margaret Cho: Yes, I love it.    [00:08:24] Miko Lee: I would watch that. That's fun. So you also have expressed your art in so many ways. Your body is filled with so many tattoos. I think you have over 70. Which of your tattoos evokes the strongest emotion for you?    [00:08:38] Margaret Cho: Well, right now I'm in this, like, trend only getting art from Korean artists, and these are guys. People from Korea who are tattooing now are really the best in the world. They are the state of the art. Like, their eye and their talent is just so innovative. There it's semi-illegal, so they do it under duress, you know, and they have to sort of do all these different things to do it. But their ability to just visualize things that are just, that seemed impossible, you know, these miracles on skin that they can do. The art now I'm really resonating with. There's an artist now that works exclusively in Dancheong, which is a kind of the color scheme of Korean temple art. And so all of his tattooing reflects that. And so I'm working on a very, very large piece on my leg that is, all Dancheong, which you know, for me, like having had lots of different kinds of tattoo, like I had sort of Japanese traditional and a lot of American traditional, and a lot of just kind of different kinds of art. Now to just really delve into the art of my ancestors is quite powerful, and by being done by very young, very skilled tattoo artists from Korea. You know, so I get to speak in Korean to them. We communicate in a language that is shared, that's ours, which is very different from the way that I've communicated with all of the other artists that I've had over my time as a tattooed person. So, um, yeah, tattooing for me, it's, it's all about Korea right now.    [00:10:21] Miko Lee: And what inspired your first tattoo?    [00:10:25] Margaret Cho: My first tattoo was done by Don Ed Hardy, who is a legendary Bay Area tattooer, also, an amazing guy and he was a friend of the employees of my father, who, my father owned Paperback Traffic, which is his gay bookstore just going in the 1970s. And so a lot of people were getting tattooed by Don Ed Hardy. They were getting full body suits in the '70s and '80s, and the, the, um, images, like, so on our refrigerator as a… When I was a child, my father would put up, um, the full body tattoos of these guys that worked for him. So that's what I would see every day. Instead of, like, our graded papers or, like, stuff that you usually have on a refrigerator, it was photographs of completely tattooed people. Um, and that really stayed with me. And so when I was ready to be tattooed, and this is, like, 2002, um, my father's employees and all of our, like, old friends took me down to see Don Ed Hardy, who was doing these body suits, and, he gave me my very, very first very large Japanese-inspired piece on my stomach and back. And that kind of started it off. I got the most painful, most difficult place in your body tattooed first, which is, like, basically your stomach, and your sternum, your chest. All those areas are really, like, those are the worst, and I got that over with. And so I realized, oh, I could actually keep on doing this. And I always knew that I would be heavily tattooed because of that.   [00:11:59] Miko Lee: So your first one you chose really big, not just like a small something. You got a really big one.    [00:12:03] Margaret Cho: Yeah.    [00:12:04] Miko Lee: Wow. Yeah. Just jump in, girl. Just jump in.    [00:12:07] Margaret Cho: Well, I just knew that was right, and I knew also this was probably, like, the only time that I would be able to get a very large piece from Don Ed Hardy, you know? Yeah. People know him, of course, from the clothing line- That's right … and the sort of Y2K influence. But he is so much more than that. His influence on tattooing is really significant. That was towards the end of his tattooing career. He didn't have many years where he kept doing it after, 'cause he explained to me that he absorbs the pain of people. Wow. And so he realized, like, that probably wasn't so good for him physically as he aged, I was really lucky to get what I got from him, which is a very, very large piece and a very important piece.   [00:12:51] Miko Lee: Amazing. And as you're talking about your childhood and growing up in the bookstore, it just makes me reflect on how your childhood was so unique and so interesting. Mm-hmm. And I'm wondering if today you were to make a television show about your childhood, how very different… With, with more artistic freedom. It would be so fun. It would be so fascinating. There's so many more streaming options than just the three networks that we grew up with. Yeah. So, what would that be like for you to do a TV show on your childhood now?    [00:13:23] Margaret Cho: I would love it. I mean, I would love to create that world, recreate that world, because, you know, we had the influence of, like, people who were doing a lot of very early body modification, meaning these full, full body tattoos, and, like, body piercing, which was such a different thing. I mean, in the 1970s we had the rise of Harvey Milk you know, and his assassination.    [00:13:44] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:13:44] Margaret Cho: We also had the devastation of the People's Temple, which was all San Francisco people.    [00:13:50] Miko Lee: Yep, yep.    [00:13:51] Margaret Cho: It happened in Guyana, people don't realize this originated in San Francisco and came from there. All the people who died were San Franciscans, and Oakland, Bay Area people. This is our people. My parents actually rented the recently vacated People's Temple for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Wow. Like, crossing the police tape. To go in and have a Korean party, and then my mother's, “Lot of ghosts.” She saw all the ghosts.   [00:14:19] Miko Lee: Yeah, I'm sure.   [00:14:21] Margaret Cho: “Ghosts, ghosts, lot of ghosts. Well, ghosts don't really do anything. They just make food get cold very fast.” You know, like that kind of a thing. So it would be a great TV show, I think.    [00:14:32] Miko Lee: Ugh, I would watch that too. We're talking about your new show, Choligarchy, which is gonna be at Berkeley Rep, and I read that you said it brings you back to your roots as a political comedian. Can you share more about this?    [00:14:44] Margaret Cho: Well, I had the luxury of the Obama administration where I didn't feel like I had to fight so hard to be heard and seen as a queer Asian American woman, 'cause I worked on the Obama campaign, I worked on, getting people registered to vote in 2008 in Philadelphia. I worked on all these different things with Cal Penn in 2008 to assure a kind of future where we are gonna have something different, and then we did. And then so I got to spend about eight years where I could do dance, I could do music, I could kinda like drift into these other arenas of work that I hadn't been able to do because, before, had been, like, so much about fighting the Bush administration, so much about fighting what was going on. So now to be able to return to a thing that I'm very used to, like political commentary, where I'm really focused on using my voice to affect change and to create change, and it's really profound, you know? I love doing this show. It's got me thousands and thousands of death threats, which is also really terrifying and bizarre. I've always had a kind of very confrontational relationship with conservatives, but now it's escalated to the point of, like, oh, I actually do fear for my safety. But I think that it's worth it. The message is worth it, and I'm proud to do this show, and I'm very, very excited to bring it to very progressive Berkeley, which they're gonna hear it better than anyone. I do think Berkeley is even more progressive than San Francisco. So it's exciting.    [00:16:27] Miko Lee: Well, San Francisco is filled with tech bros now, so it's a very- Yeah … different vibe than when we were-   [00:16:32] Margaret Cho: That's right.   [00:16:32] Miko Lee: growing up. I'm wondering, I heard you say about how different it was during the Bush regime, which is actually relatively tame in retrospect compared to the fascistic times we're living in now. I'm wondering how different, now that you're going back to the kind of political roots, how different is it from that Bush time in your approach to your comedy?    [00:16:51] Margaret Cho: Well, Bush never descended into a cult. Bush never had the sort of magnetism as a person, to demand the cult-like sort of atmosphere that sort of exists now, where we have a leader who will gladly let all of his followers be on a decoy plane while he rushes away in a catering van. We think the decoy plane, that's really America. Like, the decoy– we are all, as a nation, on the decoy plane. He's happily content to let us all die to ensure his safety. It's like they're, and they're still gonna follow him after that. So that's a cult, you know? This is a different beast than we're dealing with just sort of patriotism or the idea of like xenophobia or the idea of wanting this kind of America that Bush wanted. Bush couldn't create that because he was not a cult leader, whereas now we have a bona fide cult and cult leader on a path to destruction.    [00:17:57] Miko Lee: So given this time that we're living in and how complicated it is, I'm wondering, especially as you're going on tour with this show, what brings you comfort and makes you feel connected to home when you're on tour or when you're away?   [00:18:10] Margaret Cho: Well, my dog is with me all the time, so that's really special. She'll be there at Berkeley. She's really, really amazing. I'm a big fan of social media. It's connecting with people on there, and people are encouraging me through there. There's a lot of points where I carry home with me. I'm also, at home on the road, because I've been traveling and performing for over 40 years, so it's a place that I feel a great deal of comfort in.    [00:18:35] Miko Lee: Because you mentioned social media, I'm just wondering, isn't that where the death threats are coming from, though, is social media? Or are you getting them in—   [00:18:42] Margaret Cho: Yes. But I'm also get, I get them on my phone. I get them, like they—   [00:18:45] Miko Lee: Oh, you, they- Yeah … find your cellphone and contact you—   [00:18:47] Margaret Cho: Yeah.   [00:18:48] Miko Lee: directly? Wow.    [00:18:49] Margaret Cho: Yeah, I get them, like, you know… I'm also concerned about, I've been doxxed, you know, they threatened to kill my dog, and I'm like, “She's white. She's one of you. Why would you kill her?” It's kind of funny.   [00:19:01] Miko Lee: But you don't respond to any of these folks, right?    [00:19:04] Margaret Cho: No, you can't, because you just don't know what… I always think about, like, Melissa Hortman. They killed her dog. I don't wanna be another example of, like, MAGA lunacy. When you speak out and you are a symbol of what they don't want. They don't want women, they don't want people of color talking. When you are that you're really in the line of fire. That's why traveling works for me, I get to be very, very stealth and hidden. Um, and that's kinda also why I travel so much, is to be stealth. Mm. I get so much encouragement from social media. I don't wanna cut myself off from it. But yeah, you have to be careful.    [00:19:42] Miko Lee: So you feel like that balance outweighs it?    [00:19:45] Margaret Cho: Yeah, for sure.   [00:19:45] Miko Lee: And I'm wondering if you think there's something that's misunderstood about you?    [00:19:49] Margaret Cho: When I'm talking and people don't like what I'm saying, they will say, “Oh, look at this has-been talking again.” And I'm like, “I'm not talking because I think I'm a celebrity. I'm talking because I am alive, and everybody who is alive has the right to speak.” I think this is really important. I don't talk because I feel like I have a responsibility to talk because I represent anything. No, I talk because we should all be talking. We should all have a voice. I don't have a sense of importance about myself or who I am or what I do. I think that everybody should be talking, and now we should all be talking because now we are all on that decoy plane, and he will leave us to die. So I'm going to say something about it. People have a myth about celebrity that somehow it involves our ego, and that's why we feel compelled to have a voice. But I think we should all have a voice no matter who we are.    [00:20:41] Miko Lee: I've heard you call yourself the patron saint of outsiders. Can you talk about what that means to you?    [00:20:47] Margaret Cho: I think for me it means to be able to have, my queerness front loaded, my Asianness front loaded, my gender front loaded, all these things that I want to be able to talk to those who feel like they don't feel represented by mainstream culture, by white supremacy. If you have felt rejected or even just not included by society at large, I wanna hear your voice. I wanna hear your opinion, and I wanna know you.    [00:21:15] Miko Lee: And last question, why should folks go and see Oligarchy at Berkeley Rep?    [00:21:20] Margaret Cho: Oh, it's Choligarchy.   [00:21:20] Miko Lee: Choligarchy.   [00:21:22] Margaret Cho: It's my nation. It's my dictatorship. In my dictatorship, we have universal healthcare. In my dictatorship, we have a universal living wage. If we actually made the billionaires pay their share, if we actually stopped supporting Israel and Argentina, other countries which I don't know why we give them so much money, but we do, if we stop doing that, we stop supporting the billionaires, if we stop giving corporations handouts, we could actually have a universal living wage where everybody in this nation would just be able to just live. We could just live because we are American. We could just live. And then your work could be what you really wanna do. That would be such an important change to the way that we exist as Americans. And we could do that if we actually stopped giving b- bailouts to corporations, actually made billionaires pay their share, and stopped giving money to countries that are not ours. That's what my platform is. That's what I run on, and that's what I plan to do.    [00:22:35] Miko Lee: And folk can find out more by going to see the show at Berkeley Rep, and we'll put a link in our show notes. Thank you so much, Margaret Cho, for joining us on Apex Express.    [00:22:45] Margaret Cho: Thank you.    [00:22:46] Miko Lee: Next up, get a preview of an upcoming unique performance at Oakland Asian Culture Center. Listen to Sawaal Jawaab    MUSIC   [00:24:01] Miko Lee: That was Sawal Jawab with Arjun Verma, Eman Hashimi, and Pezhham Akhavass in Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges, a one-night-only performance on Friday, September 11th at the Oakland Asian Culture Center. The concert's a rare opportunity for Bay Area audiences to experience the interplay of some of Asia's richest classical music traditions from India, Iran, and Afghanistan. Next up, we hear from two voices, multimedia artist Masaki Fujihata and Carin Adams, senior curator at the Oakland Museum. Masaki Fujihata is a world-renowned sound, installation, interactive, and new media artist. He's also a professor at Keio University. His work has been shown all around the world, and now it's coming to the Oakland Museum, opening September 18th and running through the end of December. The piece is called BeHere / 1942, A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration, and it's a new augmented reality work. So tune in to my interview with Masaki and Carin Welcome to Apex Express, multimedia artist Masaki Fujihata and Carin Adams, senior curator at Oakland Museum.    [00:25:13] I'm so happy to have you both with me, and we're talking about the new exhibit BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration, which opens at the Oakland Museum from Friday, September 18th to Sunday, December 27th. So thank you so much for joining me. I wanna start with a question I ask all of my guests. I'm gonna start first with you, Carin, and then I'll go to Masaki, and the question is, who are your people, and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:25:53] Carin Adams: Oh, wow. I think there are lots of different facets of my family and who I think of as my people. Um, I think in, in this work in particular, I'm really, um, thinking a lot about my grandparents, my, my mother's parents, and, um, my mom, who's turning 91 in, um, October, and, um, her and her siblings' experience, um, being incarcerated in Tule Lake. So- Mm … that, I think has, has a lot to do with wh- why I'm here, and thank you so much for having me.    [00:26:36] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm. Thank you so much. And Masaki, what about you? Who are your people, and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:26:43] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, in my case, my, career started with the computer graphics long time ago in the '80s, so I came in, uh, Bay Area and, uh, West Coast quite frequently to join a big, uh, conference and so on. But then in '90s, I was very many times to be invited to be in Europe, so-called media art, i- is so dominant. So my curiosity is about the visual arts plus computer technology. Then nearly 10 years ago, I started to play with augmented reality. I recognized AR is a very good technology to put the history in actual moment. So the title Be Here 1942 means, I try to call the people in the past in the present. After one of my friend, the professor at UCLA invite me to be in Los Angeles, then we started to focus onto the Japanese Americans' history. That was the first, a kind of coincidence, but it was, very interesting to me because, I was born in Tokyo and grew up here in Tokyo, so usually I didn't think about who is a Japanese. [00:28:10] Along with this production, I studied a lot, not only the racial problems, but also the identity, , not only the personal identity, but also identity of Japanese and also American. It's really difficult to understand what's is the identity in the America because so many different people are living together and of course there are several conflicts. This is very good study for me, through the new media technology and, through the meeting with the people. Some of them really had, severe experience inside the camp. I never had a chance to think about these opportunities. Then I really want to recreate what had happened in the 1942. That was my point of view for this project.    [00:29:08] Miko Lee: I'm wondering when you were growing up in Japan, did you learn about the Japanese American incarceration?    [00:29:15] Masaki Fujihata: Maybe, maybe, but a tiny. Most of the young students just thought, oh, this is the history, not mine    [00:29:27] Miko Lee: And did you… Were there kibei that were there? Cause I know there were a lot of Japanese Americans that had been pushed out and repatriated to Japan. Did you grow up knowing any of those people?    [00:29:39] Masaki Fujihata: Mm, not, not really. Not really. Um, how can I say? Mm, maybe this is the education, the Japanese education. They didn't talk much about the history. The first part is an ancient moment, is very, very, you know, impressive. But, at the end of the term, so the modern age usually passing very, very fast.    [00:30:10] Miko Lee: Oh, interesting.    [00:30:11] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, so n- not only about, history between America and Japan, but also China and Japan.   [00:30:18] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:30:19] Masaki Fujihata: We have very few knowledge in, on the context of, uh, history education. I mean—   [00:30:24] Miko Lee: So sort of World War II- I mean- and forward? From World War II—   [00:30:27] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, yeah …   [00:30:28] Miko Lee: You didn't really learn about it?   [00:30:28] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, modern age. Modern age. I believe this is very big problem in the education.    [00:30:35] Miko Lee: That's so interesting. So the first that you really learned about the Japanese American incarceration was during, when you started this project at UCLA? Is that right?    [00:30:44] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, yeah. I know something about the history in the US, but when I started to do research, there are many details, and every people's history is very, very different. So the textbook of the history is just the surface- So that's why I wanted to show more the detail through a new media technology.    [00:31:16] Miko Lee: I read a quote from you that said, “My aim was to peer deeply into photographs to derive from them more than was visible on the surface.” Can you talk a little bit more about what that means to you?   [00:31:29] Masaki Fujihata: Yes, because, I started to think about to focus on the moment when they ride the bus. So then, of course, I did some research to read some oral history, but, most of them didn't tell about the moment because I think this was just one hour or two hours for waiting. I suppose they usually don't want to remember, and also they thought that this is not important day, then they forgot.   [00:32:04] Miko Lee: What was it about the bus that you were curious about?    [00:32:08] Masaki Fujihata: We planned to realize our project, to think about the beginning. What is the beginning? There, there are quite many novels and writings about the life in the camp because of, of course, this is so heavy. Four years in the camp is unbelievable. According to my research, some people said they thought the war will ends in three months. But in there they spend in the camp, over four years. So of course, this is a heavy story and also while in the inside the camp. There are some conflict between the first generation, second generation or American side or Japanese side. The beginning is, of course, the Pearl Harbor raid, but, the bus, suddenly one day the bus came into your town and you were asked to ride the bus, and before riding they didn't tell them where they are going. So so if it happened now, how can we behave? So this is my question. This is the beginning, and they didn't know what will happen in the future. And then in parallel, I did some research to see the photographs because, there are many documentary photographs were in the archive, in National Archive, and also Library Congress. I tried to, see the photography, but as I said, when see the picture, you know, the detail is telling a different story, against the comment. The comment is just they are lining up for riding a bus or something, or Japanese American families get together and waiting. Of course they have some name card. At last I found through one of small girl's eye, there is a reflection of the photographer. But, not only the photographer, there are two, three, or four more people standing with the cameraman. Then, of course I understand they are all Caucasians. They are not Japanese American people. So for the little lady, for the little girl, when she was surrounded by, white officer, perhaps military police, she has nothing to do. But on the surface of the photography, she's smiling. So this contrast is the beginning. So this is a problem about media, visual media. So then I really want to share this experience with the other audiences through the exhibition. That was my intention.   [00:35:18] Miko Lee: And had you seen the photographs from Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee prior to working on this project?   [00:35:25] Masaki Fujihata: Of course, I know these names because they are very famous,, documentary photographer, the magazine Life started to publish from the year 1933, it was hit, so popular. I was really surprised because they did the job to make a document for Japanese Americans, and there is over 4,000 pictures left in the archive. I saw all of these so many times, so I can tell each picture. I can tell what is the difference, between the Dorothea and Russell Lee. So each photographer has, different characteristics. But I really surprised because, Dorothea Lange's photography is very different from others. And—   [00:36:18] Miko Lee: And the government didn't like them. They locked them away for years because they were too real.    [00:36:25] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, and because, Dorothea's photography is always associated with the object inside the photography. She tried to understand who is she, who, who is—-    [00:36:38] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm …    [00:36:39] Masaki Fujihata: and try to have a good relationship with the object. Most of the photographer, like a press cameraman, it's just go there, “Hey, smile,” and shot is their, you know, way of business. But Dorothea's way is very different, so sometimes, I can tell she is always calculating the distance from her to the object. I enjoyed very much to have a chance to see all of these details. Of course, another luckiness because all of these photograph were shot by the government, then all of these are now public domain. Even me from Tokyo, I can see so many photographs with high resolution. I think those are made after year 2000 because of the technology came in. Then now they are supplying 3,000 by 4,000 pixels. That's why I could enlarge and to see the reflection on the girl's eye. It's a coincidence, but also it's the evolution of computer technology from analog photography. So this is also interesting part to share with the audience.   [00:38:01] Miko Lee: Thank you. Carin, I wonder if you could talk about what an audience will see when they come in to see the exhibit.    [00:38:08] Carin Adams: The exhibition is going to happen inside and outside the gallery. So if people are visiting the museum coming up through our entrance on Oak Street, they will have an opportunity to enter the augmented reality application that Masaki has designed where they're, standing there grounded in, the architecture of the Oakland Museum. But they're also seeing people, dressed as if they were in 1942, waiting with their belongings and their family members. They'll be able to see the buses that lined up on Oak Street in '42. There was a civil control station that was across the street, and Dorothea Lange took some very famous photographs of people waiting with their belongings in front of their houses that, on the museum side of the street. Masaki has adapted the augmented reality that he first developed for Los Angeles for Oakland. So people on entrance onto our campus will have that experience, and then if they come into the gallery, then they'll really be entering into the gaze of these eyes. They'll be surrounded by very high resolution images that Masaki has blown up, to mural size. You're forced to encounter the people that were reflected in the eyes of the subjects that Lange photographed.    [00:39:45] Miko Lee: Thank you, and I know that in the collection, you've had these Dorothea photos for a long time, right, in the Oakland Museum's—   [00:39:53] Carin Adams: Yeah. The Oakland Museum is the holder of the Dorothea Lange archive, including some of her images of the incarceration. The Bancroft Library also has extensive holdings of her work and material , related to this history. And of course, Masaki did lots of research in the National Archive and Library of Congress.   [00:40:16] Miko Lee: Masaki, I know this is the second version of the show since you have opened it first at JAMM and at UC, with UCLA. Yeah. What was it like for you to recreate it for the Oakland Museum? How has that experience been?   [00:40:30] Masaki Fujihata: I'm very, very lucky to find OMCA. Mm-hmm. We started to think about the production in OMCA. I made a research through, of course Dorothy Lang's photography. Then there is a number of the street, 1117 Oak Street is the place where people apply their address and family name. The Civil Control Station is that address. I was very surprised because this is a street in front of the museum, and actually the other side of the street was the Civil Control Station where the bus came in. So this is exact place I really wanted to put my augmented reality models. So I was very shocked because I never think about the museum is a real place.   [00:41:24] Miko Lee: So it's truly a place-based piece of art because that is the history coming alive in that very spot.    [00:41:31] Masaki Fujihata: Yes. Yeah. So, all the projects start from the realization of augmented reality.    [00:41:39] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:41:40] Masaki Fujihata: So augmented reality is a kind of tech term, but augmentation is adding some information rather than the first wa- surface or rather than the display. In this case, we are putting the happenings in the 1942 in present, and then try to make a contrast between now and the past. The exhibition inside the gallery is showing a kind of process of the research to make this augmented reality piece because for making the 3D model data, we invite many volunteers into a special studio. I have to direct them. I have to prepare some scenario for them. In some cases, you are the university students. Coincidentally, you met the professor, while waiting for the bus. This is a fiction I made. When I need to make a scenario, I really need a research what is possible, what is not possible. So then the photography help me a lot to make a small scenario.    [00:43:01] Miko Lee: How many volunteers worked with you on this?    [00:43:04] Masaki Fujihata: I think totally 64 volunteers.    [00:43:08] Miko Lee: Wow. That is amazing.    [00:43:10] Masaki Fujihata: Each one was asked to walking towards the point where the bus would come, and then the second part is waiting, and then the third part is just lining up for the bus. So there is three different scenario. Then each person appears three times. Then totally you will see nearly 200 people.    [00:43:37] Miko Lee: Wow. And I understand that you use, in order to utilize the AR, you use cameras that kind of replicate those used during the incarceration, and I'm wondering what made you decide to choose that?   [00:43:53] Masaki Fujihata: So I try to know the core idea of each technology, because the technology is usually used for capitalism. My manifest is liberate technology from capitalism. So technology has another dimension, not only for serving for the capitalism to make money for your life more rational, but the technology also can give you a chance, who are you? What is life? What is the world? So I really want to use the technology another dimension of the technology usually used by the companies, and capitalism. In this case, this project is really good because very nice photography was left in the archive. But imagine in the 1942, photography was a high technology. Very few technicians or rich people could have the camera. Now so popular everybody has a camera inside their mobile phone, but it was high tech. And now augmented reality is somehow popular technology, but no one didn't use the AR technology to think about what we are doing as an art. So I wanted to use augmented reality to, to think about what is our life    [00:45:32] Miko Lee: Ooh, that is so interesting. I really appreciate that. And I'm wondering because you've seen audiences go through the first exhibit, I'm wondering if anything surprised you by audiences that have seen it and what, what you'd like people to walk away with after going to your installation.    [00:45:51] Masaki Fujihata: I was really surprised because this was my first case the audience had a tear. So after they saw the augmented reality, some of the person said, “Masaki,” I suppose, she suppose that, “Perhaps my grandfather was here.” Could feel the same impression or imagine, she could imagine what had happened on her grandfather So it's a bit like a cinema, but there is no written story, so each person can explore the images through a tablet. But, uh, maybe five minutes later, uh, the user will feel inside the scene. So In another words, I can say you are going to feel you are inside a cinema studio. You will be captured by the camera. And also another, okay, another interesting aspect because, I could develop this project because the photographs were left made by Dorothy and other people, uh, professional documentary photographer made these photography. So photography was left. And then, um, while you are using iPad in the entrance plaza of, Oakland Museum, you will see many Japanese people wearing the costume and, waiting for the bus. But now you are the cameraman. You believe you are seeing what had happened through the display, but, imagine for them inside the image were looked by you. So this is the viewer you are going to see, but also from them, from the object, you are the cameraman.   [00:48:04] Miko Lee: So you want people to feel both sides, both being the watcher but also in it—   [00:48:09] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah.   [00:48:10] Miko Lee: Immersed in the experience.    [00:48:11] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, hunter.    [00:48:13] Miko Lee: Mm.    [00:48:13] Masaki Fujihata: Image hunter, yeah.    [00:48:15] Miko Lee: Image hunter, mm. I, I feel like you're saying utilizing technology as a tool for your emotions as opposed to a capitalistic gain. I'm wondering if you're working with AI at all, and your thoughts about it. Because you've really been on the forefront of so much multimedia since the '80s and I'm just wondering now people are just talking about AI and the impact of artists  and I wonder what your thoughts are about that.   [00:48:39] Masaki Fujihata: I, I think, uh, it's too early to, uh, work with AI as an artist because, uh, e- even the developer of, uh, AI didn't know what happened inside, so it's a black- totally black box. So that's interesting part of AI. Uh, maybe you know some, some story about this. Very recently, uh, the AI ju- just hack the connection, then they escape from the inside the laboratory to go outside the internet. So this could happen. Uh, that's why, because a human couldn't imagine. So the AI doing something different, and it's really a black box. Then, uh, that's interesting point. If I can be inside the development company as an artist, I can make something interesting hacking software, but it's a huge business, and, uh, I think this is not the moment for the artist. And also, as you know, all the data inside the AI is, uh, happenings in the past.    [00:50:02] Miko Lee: Right.    [00:50:04] Masaki Fujihata: And then, right, the present is important for the humans. What is the role of the artist? There is some, uh, sentence, artist is the person who is creating something new which has not exist before. so, uh, we are not AI, so w-we have to know who, what we should do in contrast to AI is the important moment    [00:50:37] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. I wonder if you would want to just reflect briefly on how this, this piece that you're presenting at Oakland Museum is very resonant right now in America because of the current politics of incarceration of peoples and you know, we're at the same, at the exact same concentration camps where Japanese Americans were held. Immigrants are being detained and put there right now. I'm wondering how this piece speaks to the moment that we're living in in the United States right now.   [00:51:13] Masaki Fujihata: Um, please do not make more mistakes that American government did before in 1942. So Our project can be a kind of reference what the American government did after the Pearl Harbor.    [00:51:39] Carin Adams: Masaki, would you wanna talk a little bit about the new piece that you're making?    [00:51:45] Masaki Fujihata: Oh, I see, I see. I think- That's a good idea. I, I totally forgot. Yeah. Thank you, Carin. Because I proposed to Carin and museum about to make a new piece. The idea is about, uh, the poster. The, that they… So the, in Okura case, maybe, uh, to l- late April in 1942, the poster paste on anywhere, everywhere inside the town, and talking about the, at the certain day, you cannot be stay here. You will be criminal. So, so this is the s- starting point. Then they need to come to the civil control station to sign up, and then one week later, the bus came in, then they need to go to the camp. Then the poster is now very famous, but, uh, usually, people didn't read it Then I, I asked to, collect volunteers to ask read this text on the poster, uh, several different locations inside the Oakland. So when you see the final result, the view of the people reading the text aloud is very peaceful, very bright, California sunshine and there is a lake behind and sometimes, you know, the buses came and stop and go there. So this is very peaceful, but the content is very strong- strongly contrast- co- contrasted. So it's a command from the government. I really wanted to, to make this contrast through this new production. So you, you will see three vertical monitors, and, 25 different group of people. I think there was nearly 45 people helped me to realize this   [00:54:02] Miko Lee: What is it you hope to evoke by adding this new piece of the relocation poster?   [00:54:08] Masaki Fujihata: I really wanted to involve some of the young generation and family and also, known Japanese American people. So all of these people, of course, have some fear against the, this moment, and then try to, uh, send messages. So they helped me to realize this.   [00:54:39] Carin Adams: The video is really going to provide the soundtrack for the exhibition. There is no sound in any of the other film elements or in the AR other than what visitors bring in conversation into the space. But they'll be able to hear the local volunteers that Masaki assembled reading the exclusion order text and we're expecting that to be very profound- impactful. And yes, some of the people who volunteered for this new video element were incarcerated themselves, others are descendants, and then there are just people who are representing different immigrant experiences who wanted to participate. So it's a very local production, and it really cites us in the present moment with this really chilling text from the past.    [00:55:33] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining me and chatting with me about the exhibit BeHere / 1942. I'm really excited to check it out, and I hope our audience gets a chance to go and see it all the way through the end of December at Oakland Museum.   [00:55:48] Carin Adams: Thank you so much for having us.    [00:55:50] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night.   The post APEX Express – 9.3.26 – Beneath the Surface with Margaret Cho & Masaki Fujihata appeared first on KPFA.

Recessions, trade wars, labor unrest — in moments of societal crisis in the United States, Asian-Americans have been perennially targeted, from the destruction of Chinatowns by white mobs, to the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2, to attacks against Asians during Covid. Historian Scott Kurashige reflects on more than 175 years of anti-Asian violence and its connection to U.S. empire abroad and a divided working class at home. (Encore presentation.) Scott Kurashige, American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism UC Press, 2026 Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash The post U.S. Capitalism, Empire, and Anti-Asian Violence appeared first on KPFA.

On this episode, we chat with author Momo Yamaguchi about her debut novel, Hello, Limerence, an ode to bad decisions made in our mid-twenties following a young Japanese woman, dealing with a soul-sucking corporate job and a stagnant love-life, who lets a growing crush on a Japanese American man become an obsession that throws her life into chaos. Follow Momo on Instagram at @momoyamagucci and check out her debut novel Hello, Limerence is available now on the Books & Boba bookshop!Books & Boba is a podcast dedicated to reading and featuring books by Asian and Asian American authorsSupport the Books & Boba Podcast by:Joining our Patreon to receive exclusive perksPurchasing books at our bookshopRocking our Books & Boba merchFollow our hosts:Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)Follow us:InstagramTwitterGoodreadsFacebookThe Books & Boba August 2026 pick is Klara and the Sun by Kazuo IshiguroThis podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Tips for avoiding flea-borne typhus. The Japanese American National Museum will reopen after a two year renovation. And a new food pop-up, Taqueando After Dark. Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.comSupport the show: https://laist.com

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music's highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing. Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include: Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005. Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010) Japan's Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020) When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020) WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021). Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist) Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator) Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings) The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music's highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing. Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include: Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005. Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010) Japan's Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020) When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020) WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021). Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist) Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator) Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings) The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music's highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing. Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include: Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005. Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010) Japan's Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020) When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020) WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021). Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist) Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator) Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings) The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-american-studies

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music's highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing. Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include: Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005. Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010) Japan's Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020) When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020) WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021). Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist) Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator) Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings) The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music's highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing. Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include: Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005. Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010) Japan's Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020) When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020) WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021). Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist) Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator) Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist's Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings) The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service.Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/japanese-studies Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode continues our 10th anniversary micro-series with a conversation featuring Dr. Ken Fong—longtime pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles, former national Asian American ministry leader, and Daniel's predecessor as Executive Director of Fuller's Asian American Initiative. Ken and Daniel trace the decades-long, often invisible labor behind the Asian American Center's history, from Fuller's earliest Asian American ministries class to the founding of the Center itself. Ken's path to Fuller in 1978, and the wave of Japanese American and Chinese American students who shaped the seminary's Asian American presence in that era Why Japanese American churches—shaped by the incarceration camps and shifting generational leadership—became, in Ken's words, a reluctant "vanguard" of pan-Asian ministry Evergreen Baptist's decision to hire its first Chinese American associate pastor, and Ken's framing of the church as evolving from a "Japanese restaurant" to a fusion menu still cooked by Asian American chefs Ken's early clashes over "new wineskins" for American-born Chinese ministry, and the "30 years too soon" conversation that followed The founding and dissolution of Fuller's earlier Asian American Initiative—including the racism Ken and Daniel encountered while trying to institutionalize the program, and why Ken ultimately stepped down so the Center could be funded Ken and Daniel's reflections on the emotional toll of that transition, and what it meant to rebuild afterward Why Asian American women students were consistently among the strongest in Ken's classes—and how few went on into full-time ministry Ken's shift over time from megachurch ambitions to a more communal, formation-centered vision of Asian American church This one runs long on institutional history, but it's essential context for understanding what the Center stands on. Thanks for listening! Sign up to receive more updates from the AAC: https://aac.fuller.edu/newsletter/ If you appreciate the work we do at the Asian American Center at Fuller Seminary, please consider supporting us! Your monetary support sustains our vital work and expands Asian American research, leadership development, and pastoral formation for the Church in the year ahead. Donate here: fuller.edu/giveaac. For information about our 10th anniversary gala, visit tinyurl.com/10yearsaac

Baseball history gets personal, and this one might change how you see the game forever. Author, filmmaker, historian, and former player Kerry Yo Nakagawa reveals the hidden legacy of Japanese American baseball. The family stories that shaped his life, and the lessons every athlete needs to hear right now. Kerry has spent decades preserving a missing chapter of American sports history, from the Nisei players who were denied access to Major League Baseball to the generations of ballplayers who kept the game alive anyway. He shares how a childhood surrounded by sandlot baseball, a family photo with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, and a simple moment watching his son's jersey sparked a lifelong mission to uncover the stories most fans never hear. You'll discover: – Why Japanese American players were forced into their own leagues – How sandlot baseball built championship habits, double plays, and baseball IQ – What Japan's training, discipline, and attention to detail can teach players everywhere – Why Shohei Ohtani's bathroom duty says everything about his mindset – How baseball, football, film, and even Alcatraz all connect in one unforgettable life Kerry also opens up about his work in film and television. His work on Rocky II, Chuck Norris projects, and his close relationship with Pat Morita, the beloved Mr. Miyagi. Along the way, he talks about the power of pride, discipline, and doing every job like it matters – whether you're cleaning a toilet, turning a double play, or chasing a dream. If you love baseball, history, or stories about people who turned adversity into legacy, this episode belongs on your playlist. It is funny, surprising, deeply human, and packed with the kind of insight that makes you appreciate the game in a whole new way.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Japanese America! In Season 3, Episode 7, we step directly into one of the most monumental, legally complex, and deeply emotional chapters in our community's history: the fight for Japanese American Redress. While most people think of Redress in terms of the landmark Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and the 120,000 Japanese Americans forced into domestic concentration camps, there is a massive parallel story of international kidnapping and legal limbo that took decades to bring to light. In this episode, we explore the extraordinary narrative of Japanese Latin American (JLA) deportees. Through the rare, deeply personal oral histories of the three Naganuma Brothers—Jimmy, George Kazuharu, and Kazumu Julio Cesar—we trace a family's journey from a thriving life in Callao, Peru, to being abducted by the U.S. military, fumigated with DDT upon arrival in New Orleans, and incarcerated at the Department of Justice internment camp in Crystal City, Texas. We examine their multi-decade battle for basic legal status after being classified as "illegal entrants," and highlight the fierce advocacy of their sister Kiyo, whose bold confrontation with U.S. officials made her siblings some of the few Japanese Peruvians to receive the full $20,000 Redress settlement. Koji also shares his own personal connection to Crystal City, where his family was incarcerated after his grandfather gave up his citizenship, illustrating the diverse and irony-filled nature of that campLinks & Resources MentionedDiscover Nikkei & Densho Partnership: Listen to the full oral histories and read the complete transcripts for Jimmy Naganuma (https://ddr.densho.org/narrators/927/), George Naganuma (https://ddr.densho.org/narrators/928/), and Kazumu Julio Cesar Naganuma (https://ddr.densho.org/narrators/927/)Learn More: Visit the Japanese American National Museum (JANM.org) for exhibitions, history, and community resources.Follow & Support UsEnjoyed the episode?  Don't forget to rate, review, and tell a friend! CreditsThe music was created by Jalen BlankWritten by Koji Steven SakaiHosts: Michelle Malazaki and Koji Steven SakaiEdited by Koji Steven SakaiProduced by Koji Steven Sakai in conjunction with the Japanese American National MuseumSupport the show

Our guest today is Chris Cheng. Chris is an American sports shooter, Second Amendment and diversity outreach advocate, and History Channel's Top Shot Season 4 Champion. He is also the author of the memoir and guide for beginning shooters book, Shoot to Win. And now, Chris has authored The Purple Heart Battalion, which tells the story of Japanese American soldiers of the 100th Battalion / 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II—men who fought with extraordinary courage for America while many of their own families were unjustly incarcerated back home. It's a historical novel about love, honor, survival, and what it means to belong to a country that has not always fully believed you do. 1) Many people know you as a champion shooter and Second Amendment advocate. How did your journey evolve into writing a historical novel about one of the most remarkable military units in American history? 2) Give us an overview of The Purple Heart Battalion. What story are you telling, and why did you feel it needed to be told now? 3) Executive Order 9066 dramatically changed the lives of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Can you explain what it was and how it affected the families whose stories inspired your novel? 4) You intentionally use the term "incarceration camps" rather than the more familiar "internment camps." Why is that distinction important, and what does that language help us better understand about this chapter of American history? 5) Historical fiction has a unique ability to make history personal. What do you hope readers will learn about courage, citizenship, civil liberties, and the importance of preserving freedom from the story of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team? 6) The legacy of these soldiers is one of extraordinary sacrifice despite extraordinary adversity. What can their story teach Americans today about unity, patriotism, and serving a nation even during times of division? 7) How do people follow you? Originally Aired 8.10.26

Between 1942 and 1944 over 16,000 Japanese Americans were interned in Jerome Arkansas. Join us for a story of lives interrupted and resilience with authors Connie and Kent Matsumoto and their novel Of White Ashes.

It has been over 80 years since more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes, detained and incarcerated during World War II.For many Japanese Americans, the hurt and trauma from that period in history is still felt today. Some have drawn parallels to the Trump administration's immigration policy, amid continuing mass detentions and deportations.Tuesday on Midday Edition, we discuss the through lines between wartime incarceration and present-day immigration enforcement, the impact on Japanese Americans generations later, and what we can learn from the past.Guests:Naomi Ostwald Kawamura, executive director, DenshoKoji Lau-Ozawa, assistant professor of anthropology, UC Los AngelesJames “Jim” Lin, retired professor, UC San DiegoLinks:Learning overview for Japanese American incarceration — DenshoJapanese American National Museum homepageJapanese American Historical Society of San Diego"Opinion: The link between wartime internment and ICE's abuse of due process" — The San Diego Union-Tribune

State and local leaders are suing the federal government after alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly broke ground on a proposal to build an ICE facility in Gilroy. Santa Clara County leaders and a number of other Bay Area cities, counties and community groups, have banded together to put a stop to the plan. At a recent press conference, members of San Jose's Japanese American community also spoke out, drawing parallels to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Mark Levin Show, it's particularly annoying that numerous national political figures refuse to discuss the significant and growing Islamist threat in the United States. Islamism is the greatest cultural threat we face. What is the ruling class is doing to stop Islamists from entering the country? Are we reviewing the status of those already here who promote radical views? Conservatives need to take over at the local level and reject mosque expansions, which isn't about restricting religious freedom but defending it against Islamist intolerance of religious diversity. Meanwhile, issues like universal healthcare are falsely cast as civil rights to advance a Marxist agenda that expands “democracy” and “rights” while threatening programs like Medicare and opposing enforcement against illegal immigration; supporting candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan would harm both the state and the country. Also, Sen Chris Van Hollen is a radical nut job, Jew hater, and Israel hater. Van Hollen defends Democrats against communist labels by citing Republican attacks on FDR over Social Security. What did FDR do? FDR created internment camps of 120,000 Japanese Americans, refusing to sign a bipartisan anti-lynching bill to protect Southern votes, imposing Jewish immigration quotas during the Holocaust, and enacting socialist policies including industrial trusts and price/wage controls that prolonged the Depression, arguing socialism redistributes rather than creates wealth. Later, Wisconsin Governor candidate Francesca Hong views Thanksgiving as racist and posted in 2021 that Americans should cancel it. This is the problem with insufficiently patriotic immigrants welcomed into the Democratic Party's big tent. Later, by the skin of his teeth, Abdul El-Sayed is now the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Michigan. Early data shows El-Sayed did well with White, relatively wealthy college graduates, but not so well with union/blue collar workers and Blacks. El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, a good, solid candidate, in the November general election. El-Sayed will get the support of the media and he'll play down his Islamism and his association with people like Sen Bernie Sanders and Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Let's not pretend El-Sayed is just another progressive. He's an Islamic Marxist. What Democrats have to figure out: how do you build a party around elitists? Claims from some on the fringes of the conservative movement—that younger people today face uniquely hard times due to student debt, homeownership barriers, and inflation driven by the war with Iran—are inaccurate and sound like leftist or socialist talking points. There have been far greater hardships faced by prior generations: the Great Depression's 25% unemployment, widespread business failures, and near-economic collapse, followed by World War II's draft of 16 million Americans with over 600,000 casualties under brutal conditions. Young people today simply do not have it as hard as those of 50–80 years ago - they simply don't. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show, Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Senate from Michigan, is a very sick person, full of hate. He is on record supporting driver's licenses for illegals, opposing cooperation with ICE, and says America was founded on slavery. Slavery actually existed all over the world when America was founded: Black tribes sold other Africans to Europeans. Slavery exists today in Africa - where Islamists kill and capture Christians in Nigeria -- and in the Middle East. Women are treated horribly in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan -- all Islamic areas. America fought a Civil War and amended our Constitution to rid this country of slavery. Nirvana has never existed anywhere, but the America of today is as close as it has ever come. Meanwhile, issues like universal healthcare are falsely cast as civil rights to advance a Marxist agenda that expands “democracy” and “rights” while threatening programs like Medicare and opposing enforcement against illegal immigration; supporting candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan would harm both the state and the country. Also, Sen Chris Van Hollen is a radical nut job, Jew hater, and Israel hater. Van Hollen defends Democrats against communist labels by citing Republican attacks on FDR over Social Security. What did FDR do? FDR created internment camps of 120,000 Japanese Americans, refusing to sign a bipartisan anti-lynching bill to protect Southern votes, imposing Jewish immigration quotas during the Holocaust, and enacting socialist policies including industrial trusts and price/wage controls that prolonged the Depression, arguing socialism redistributes rather than creates wealth. Later, Wisconsin Governor candidate Francesca Hong views Thanksgiving as racist and posted in 2021 that Americans should cancel it. This is the problem with insufficiently patriotic immigrants welcomed into the Democratic Party's big tent. In breaking news, authorities arrested a man Sunday at President Trump's Los Angeles-area golf course after he appeared to monitor security preparations two days ahead of a fundraiser there. The man, who was taking photos and video, carried a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket; a loaded pistol was recovered from his car. He was charged with allegedly carrying a concealed firearm and possessing prohibited ammunition. The arrest was announced by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as Trump prepared to arrive for a Republican National Committee fundraising dinner at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 140,000 thousand people. Hideko Tamura Snider was 10 years old at the time of the devastating blast and suffered unspeakable loss. She tells her story and her work for peace and reconciliation in the new documentary “Seeds of Peace.” She recently revised and updated her 1998 memoir  “One Sunny Day” to include this work.   The film documents her involvement in the years-long effort taking the seeds of trees that survived the atomic bomb to grow dozens of trees in Oregon. The communities chosen have ties to “World War II memory, Japanese American incarceration, veterans’ experience, and reconciliation.” We talk with the historian David-Paul B. Hedberg, producer and director of “Seeds of Peace." The film is screening around the state, including on the August 6 anniversary at Portland’s Tomorrow Theater.  

Welcome to Season 6, Episode 31! Today's guest came from an artistic family, but also was literally discovered on the streets of Tokyo which gave a huge boost to his career. Actor, writer, and producer Gabriel Prevost-Takahashi was born in Tokyo, spent time in Canada while growing up, and has worked on stage and screen for film and television.   Gabriel has appeared in projects ranging from the survival thriller Something in the Water to one of the most acclaimed television series of recent years, FX's Shōgun, where he played a Gray Guard and had the opportunity to work on a production celebrated for putting Japanese language, actors, and culture at the center of its storytelling. More recently, Gabriel can be seen on Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender in the recurring role of Lieutenant Khettry, a soldier serving on the front lines of Ba Sing Se. Gabriel is also interested in creating stories himself. As a writer and producer, he has been developing projects including Go For Broke, a limited series exploring the experiences of Japanese American soldiers during World War II, as well as other film and television projects that give him opportunities both in front of and behind the camera. In our conversation we take time to talk about his background, the impact of getting noticed on the streets by legendary photographer Leslie Kee, what it was like for him to join a project like Shōgun, the responsible of being part of a global phenomena like Avatar: The Last Airbender, his hopes with Go For Broke, and much more. To learn more about Gabriel, you can watch any of his projects and you can follow him on Instagram @gabriel__prevost. If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or our links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com.

It has been a long while since Masaki and I sat down for a chat -- I'm calling this Masaki 2.0Japan.WWII. Portals. Japanese American. Shinto. Basalt. Mental states of consciousness. Time. Scalar Technology. WTH is going on. And so much more. Links for MASAKI MIYAGAWA:⁠https://www.masaki.one⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/masaki_one⁠Tips are most welcome:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com/niish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our website:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thecosmicsalon.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠I want to thank the producers of this show:Meredith Walako (Scheduling, bookings, and social media manager). White Hawk Medicine. Myra. Cale Darnegie. Jorge. Susan Jenkins. Kerry Hoyal. Sarah Etta. Lizz Radican. Claire Cathcart. Steven Mercer. WiseNightOwl. Noël. Melanie Poe. Jason Lambson. Neil Macnaughton. Kate Kukulkan. Jane F. Kim Simone. Everlong,Niish-

Philippa opens with a brief history lesson — the word "blurb" was invented in 1907 by a writer mocking self-congratulatory publishers, and his fictional creation Miss Belinda Blurb gave us the word we still use today. Then it's three book reviews and a wide-ranging, genuinely fascinating conversation with David Baldacci — over 200 million books sold — about his latest novel Hope Rises.

Francis Fukuyama discusses the experiences and individuals that shaped him. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. We have a treat for you today! To mark the publication of Francis Fukuyama's memoir In the Realm of the Last Man, we're launching a multi-part series about his intellectual eras. Here, Francis Fukuyama reflects on his life, from his family's experience of Japanese-American internment, to surprising family secrets discovered in letters, to the political and social fallout after changing his mind about the Iraq War. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. And, if you'll be in Oxford, UK on Friday, September 4, Francis Fukuyama will be in conversation with Nigel Warburton about his memoir—learn more and get tickets here. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, hosts Tyler Suksawat, Will Beaman, and Scott Ferguson sit down with Washington State Senator Bob Hasegawa to explore his nearly two-decade campaign to establish a public bank in Washington State, launched in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street crash.The conversation situates Hasegawa's tireless public banking advocacy within his broader political formation. Born to a Japanese American family that suffered forced incarceration by the U.S. government during World War II, Hasegawa went on to enter the trades and join the Teamsters during a historic turning point for organized labor. As a leader in the rank-and-file movement to democratize the union and eradicate systemic corruption, Hasegawa was elected to union leadership in the Teamsters' first-ever democratic vote, only to subsequently witness a disappointing return to corruption enabled by the Clinton administration. This early crucible in rank-and-file organizing and institutional power profoundly shaped his career in the Washington State House and Senate, grounding his legislative focus on labor rights, racial justice, and public accountability.Dedicating the core of the discussion to the mechanics and necessity of public finance, Hasegawa articulates why public banks are vital tools for democratizing money, keeping public revenues working for local communities, and serving as a countercyclical buffer during market downturns. In a fascinating historical turn, Hasegawa walks through the founding of the Bank of North Dakota over a century ago, revealing how the agrarian movement behind the bank actually drew inspiration from progressive public ownership projects underway in Seattle at the time. This historical connection links the century-old legacy of the Bank of North Dakota directly back to Washington State, demonstrating that the current movement for public banking in Washington is coming full circle to its original inspiration. Finally, Hasegawa frames public banking as a truly global movement, exploring how different public financial structures around the world—such as Germany's municipal Sparkassen system—can learn from one another, cooperate, and move in international solidarity to build an equitable, democratically governed financial architecture.Check out the Substack for the Washington State Public Banking Workgroup currently chaired by Senator Hasegawa.See here for the 2026 SB 5754 Work Session and Public Testimony for Hasegawa's public banking legislation. Visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructureOriginal music by Josh Klinghoffer 

In this special Japan episode of Wabi Sabi, I'm sharing the unwritten cultural rules every traveler should know before visiting Japan. Drawing from my Japanese American heritage and a lifetime of traveling throughout the country, I'm opening up the thoughtful customs, quiet gestures, and insider knowledge that can completely transform the way you experience Japan. From showing respect at temples and shrines to supporting local businesses, understanding omamori, honoring elders, and moving through sacred spaces with care, consider this your guide to experiencing Japan with greater depth, beauty, and connection, from your Japanese American best friend. Thank you for listening! Please share this podcast with two friends! xx Candice

Vince Fakhoury Horn speaks with Mushim Patricia Ikeda about working class dharma—from growing up as "the minority of Greensburg, Ohio" in a third-generation Japanese American family, to training in penniless Korean Zen temples where renovating the building was the practice. Along the way: bliss bunnies, samadhi junkies, mutual aid networks, and why affordability may be the grassroots issue of 2026.

The Tule Lake Segregation Center in Modoc County was one of ten camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Eighty years after its closure, a group of pilgrims recently paid tribute to the people who died there. Reporter: Roman Battaglia, Jefferson Public Radio Federal fire investigators are looking into a possible link between PG&E equipment and a fire in Plumas County that started earlier this month. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED As a new school year approaches, some Los Angeles special education teachers and parents are worried the LA Unified School District won't bring ballooning class sizes down this fall. That's despite an agreement reached last spring between the district and UTLA, the union representing teachers. Reporter: Maya Mukherjee, LAist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During World War II, the US government asked the Japanese American citizens it interned two questions: Would you serve in the US armed forces wherever ordered? And would you swear “unqualified allegiance” to the U.S. and forswear any allegiance to Japan's emperor? Those two so-called loyalty questions animate acclaimed novelist Karen Tei Yamashita's latest book, which explores that historical period of state-sanctioned violence against immigrants and citizens alike — and how this notion of “loyalty” divided, antagonized, imprisoned and expelled Japanese Americans during World War II, with long-term ramifications. Following three generations of Japanese Americans before, during and after internment, the novel is formatted as the archived letters, poetry and oral histories of Japanese Americans real and imagined. We'll talk with Yamashita about her own family's story and about the novel's unfortunate relevance today. It's called “Questions 27 & 28.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We avoided this episode because we thought it was going to be a sad episode about internment camps. But while the damage done to Japanese-Americans in World War II is definitely discussed, there are also wild car accidents, classic Magnum takes to the camera, optimal Magnum-Higgins bickering, and Macho Taco! Is this a core episode of “Magnum”? Follow the Kool-Aid Man. Jason Snell, Philip Michaels and David J. Loehr.

We avoided this episode because we thought it was going to be a sad episode about internment camps. But while the damage done to Japanese-Americans in World War II is definitely discussed, there are also wild car accidents, classic Magnum takes to the camera, optimal Magnum-Higgins bickering, and Macho Taco! Is this a core episode of “Magnum”? Follow the Kool-Aid Man. Jason Snell, Philip Michaels and David J. Loehr.

What makes a young Asian American fly halfway across the world to represent the U.S.? For five youth ambassadors at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, the answer was more personal than a résumé line.In the premiere of SeroTunein, host Kurien Thomas introduces the people behind this series — first-gen kids of immigrant parents drawn to Japan by family history, language, a career pivot, or simply the desire for a fresh start. Together they begin asking the questions they were rarely asked growing up: about expectations, identity, and belonging between two cultures.In this episode:What a World Expo actually is (think World Cup, minus the sports)Why so many Japanese American ambassadors chose to reconnect with their roots on their own termsThe quiet search for community that shapes the first-gen experienceThis is part one of a three-part series on wellness, culture, and identity.

Send us Fan MailMichelle Shimohara is a San Gabriel Valley native raised in Monterey Park and Montebello, who attended Macy Intermediate and Schurr High School before building a career in real estate that began in 2014. She previously appeared on the MySGV Podcast in a widely viewed episode about her Japanese American identity and upbringing, and returns in this follow-up conversation to share more stories from her life in the SGV.In this episode, Michelle talks about growing up in the "SJ" (Sansei/San Gabriel Valley Japanese American) social scene of the 1980s, including school rivalries between Schurr, Mark Keppel, and Alhambra High, and the car culture surrounding events like Nisei Week and the SALT gathering in Little Tokyo. She recounts reconnecting with a brother who had been given up for adoption years earlier, describes an unsettling experience living in a rental unit near Tai Hei restaurant in Monterey Park, and shares stories from her career in real estate, including how California law handles disclosure of deaths in a home and how buyers respond to that information.For SGV viewers, this episode offers a personal look at the Japanese American community's history in Monterey Park and Montebello, from youth sports and school culture to the car and music scenes that shaped the era. For Michelle's audience and those researching real estate topics, the conversation also touches on practical information about property disclosure laws and buyer decision-making in a competitive housing market.If you enjoyed hearing Michelle's stories, subscribe to the MySGV Podcast and share this episode with someone who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley._______________Music CreditsIntroEuphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OGStingerScarlet Fire (Sting), Otis McDonald, YouTube Audio LibraryOutroEuphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG__________________My SGV Podcast:Website: www.mysgv.netNewsletter: Beyond the MicPatreon: MySGV Podcastinfo@sgvmasterkey.com

Today, we’re bringing you the best from the KUOW Newsroom. First, when it comes to Xbox, Microsoft is doing a hard reset. This week, the company began reducing its gaming division by 3,200 jobs. Microsoft calls it the most significant restructuring in Xbox history. Next, instead of watching fireworks to commemorate America's 250th birthday last weekend, about 400 people went on a pilgrimage to the site of a former camp where Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during World War II. And finally, one of the most endangered sea creatures of the Pacific Ocean is getting a leg up in the kelp forests of the San Juan Islands. It’s a twenty-four-armed sea star called the sunflower star. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the eve of July 4th, against the backdrop of Independence Hall and the Trump-censored President's House memorial—where enslaved Africans were held in bondage as the foundations of the American republic were laid—Refuse Fascism convened an urgent outdoor public panel discussion, discussing:What does it mean to celebrate “America 250” as fascism is consolidating? Why is rewriting history so important to Trump/MAGA fascists?Why are Black history and liberation struggles such central targets of fascist repression and suppression? And what responsibility do people of conscience have in this moment?Featured speakers included:Michael Coard, attorney and founder of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. He helped win the creation of the President's House slavery memorial and is now leading the fight to stop its dismantling by the Trump Regime and defend the public telling of slavery's history at Independence Mall.Rep. Chris Rabb, PA State Representative (PA-200) and Congressional Democratic nominee (PA-03)Masaru Edmund Nakawatase, Japanese American civil rights organizer, educator, and peace advocate born in the Poston incarceration camp in Arizona during World War II. Dread Scott, visual artist whose work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennial, the Whitney Museum and has been outlawed by the US Congress. Watch the full event here.Read the statement: America at 230: Ruled by An Illegitimate Fascist Regime on Track to Destroy the WorldRelated: White House Criticizes Smithsonian Museum for ‘Extreme Political Activism'Michael Coard: Justice delayed is not always justice deniedJuly 4, America 250: Extreme Heat, Extreme Need to Fight for a Different FutureText REFUSE to 855-755-1314 or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, follow @RefuseFascism on social media (@RefuseFashizm on TikTok) and our YouTube channel: @Refuse_Fascism.Support:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Refuse Fascism on Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/refusefascism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠donate.refusefascism.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Venmo: Refuse-Fascism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy merch (Big Cartel)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy merch (Fourth Wall)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown

"What I vividly recall is after getting to Tanforan and walking into this horse stable, and Mom… putting down her suitcase and just crying.”This is the story of Japanese American incarceration.In February 1942, shortly after the United States enters the war, FDR signs Executive Order 9066, beginning the forced removal of Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes and lives. Some 120,000 civilians—many of them American citizens, none of them charged with a crime—are sent to camps across the American West and South. Their constitutional rights are denied in the name of national security.Even as families struggle to carry on inside the barbed wire, legal challenges arise. Three Japanese Americans fight their way to the Supreme Court, forcing the nation's highest court to confront a question it would rather avoid: can the Constitution be suspended for an entire ethnic group in wartime? And when the court finally rules—does the answer change anything at all?____Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com andpreorder Prof. Jackson's new bookgo deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendationsjoin discussions in our Facebook communityget news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette come see a live showget HTDS merchor become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.HTDS is part of Audacy media network. Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com.

USE CODE DONK50 TO GET 50% OFF YOUR PATREON SUBSCRIPTION https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys LISTEN TO BLOOD WORK: https://open.spotify.com/show/5jt9RZSCVMJ1KS84QHB9jJ Buy The Highlands Burn: https://www.amazon.com/Highlands-Burn-Foundling-Brigade-Saga-ebook/dp/B0GSG5CNXX Get the audiobook (read by Joe) https://www.llbdpodcast.com/products/the-highlands-burn-audiobook During WWII the US Army developed a top secret program to create racist attack dogs on a swamp island off of the coast of Mississippi. This is the story about how Japanese-American soldiers were forced to act as bait for packs of untrained, starving, and abused dogs all because a Swiss psycho, who had no experience training dogs, convinced the US Army that each race smelled differently. SOURCES: https://www.npca.org/articles/3798-the-dog-trainers-of-cat-island https://historynet.com/dog-training-pacific-war/ https://www.sunherald.com/news/state/mississippi/article277536763.html https://www.uswardogs.org/WWII https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/dogs-defense-how-skip-spot-and-rover-went-fight-world-war-ii https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/national-dog-day https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/uncle-sam-needs-to-borrow-your-dog.htm