Photo that appeared in Bridge Magazine, Summer 1977. This is also one of the photos that Bob Onodera most likely used in designing the cover graphic of Ichiro Yamada for the 1976 CARP paperback reprint of John Okada’s novel, “No-No Boy.” Photo by Nancy Wong.
Fifty years ago today we staged the world premiere of Honey Bucket by Mel Escueta, the first play to reveal the psychic contradictions felt by Asian Americans who fought in the American war in Vietnam.
This weekend the Densho digital archive and public history organization celebrates thirty years of service to preserve and share the history of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. It’s been a remarkable journey for them and one I’ve been pleased and proud to support. Continue reading Thirty years of collaboration with Densho→
With a new generation of interest in the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans, I’m fielding more inquiries about the JACL’s 1990 research report into its own wartime activities, a document commonly known as “The Lim Report.” One thing led to another, and we’ve quickly put together this workshop for the Tule Lake Pilgrimage on Sunday, July 5, at 8:00 am in the big College Union Auditorium: Continue reading A brief history of “The Lim Report” and how it came to be→
Now in its second year, this regime’s tactics have evolved. Here are highlights of the grim outlook I gathered from several sources and shared at Densho’s recent workshop on “Teaching Difficult Histories;” at a panel at the Association for Asian American Studies conference just concluded; and last week at the Seattle Public Library’s “One Book, One Coast” program. Continue reading Mass Incarceration and Deportation Today: A Tale of Two Maps→
I recently introduced a video call for The 50501 Movement — the group bringing you the No Kings 3 march this weekend — to hear from activists in New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Salt Lake City who are using local zoning codes and permitting processes to stop or slow the Department of Homeland Security from buying or leasing vacant warehouses near cities for use as immigrant detention centers. Continue reading Warehouses as 21st Century American Concentration Camps→
It’s unbelievable to be among Luis Valdez, Robert Hooks, and others interviewed for the American theater issue of Tar Baby, a new quarterly journal published by the Toni Morrison Foundation that “connects a global community of intellectuals, artists, educators, and cultural enthusiasts.”
Many thanks to renowned novelist Ishmael Reed for the Q and A below. I encourage you to get a copy of the Fall 2025 issue here, just to see the world-class magazine design by Gisela Swift of Picante Creative that uses photos from our recent script workshop at the Seattle Repertory Theater. You can click on the images to read the spread, but I’ve also posted the text below: Continue reading Q and A with Ishmael Reed on “NO-NO BOY: The Play”→
Rachel Maddow and her team at MS NOW completed the final two episodes of her Burn Order podcast on the wartime incarceration only last Friday, just in time for the series launch before a live audience on Sunday, December 15, at the ornate Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. Her team invited Satsuki Ina, Lori Bannai, and me to speak on the first of two panels.
Many thanks to Rachel Maddow and her team at MS NOW for reaching out to me and others in the community to help connect the dots between the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and the abductions of non-white immigrants and citizens on the streets of America today. Their six-part podcast series, “Burn Order,” dropped the first two episodes today, preceded by this video trailer:
