During wartime, how does a person prove their loyalty to their country? Is it restricted to military service? Or are there other forms of loyalty?
These and other questions of loyalty and patriotism will be discussed at a panel discussion on March 12 featuring the World War II Tule Lake Segregation Center and the novel, “No No Boy” by John Okada.
Panelists will include Roger Daniels, University of Cincinnati professor of history emeritus and pioneer scholar in Japanese American history; Barbara Takei, an independent writer/researcher and board member of the Tule Lake Committee; and award-winning filmmaker and journalist Frank Abe.
Daniels and Takei are working on a history of America’s worst concentration camp and will share some of their research findings.
Abe, who is compiling new research for a book on John Okada, will share his insights into how Okada took the story of the draft resisters and set it against the places where he grew up in postwar Seattle.
The program will take place on March 12 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington.
A portion of the program will also be devoted to sharing about the UCLA Asian American Studies Center’s Eji Suyama Endowment, which strives to preserve the history of Japanese American dissent during World War II.
On hand from UCLA will be Professor David K. Yoo, director of the Center, and Professor Lane Hirabayashi, the George and Sakaye Aratani Endowed Chair in Japanese American Incarceration, Redress and Community.
The program is co-sponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center’s Suyama Endowment and the George and Sakaye Aratani Endowed Chair in Japanese American Incarceration, Redress and Community; Densho: the Japanese American Legacy Project; American Ethnic Studies Department, University of Washington; and the Japanese American Citizens League – Seattle Chapter and Puyallup Valley Chapter.
More information can be foun through the UCLA Asian American Studies Center at (310) 825-2974 or at www.suyamaproject.org.
