Join me as I sit down with Claudia Katayanagi, an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work brings hidden histories to light. As a fourth-generation Japanese American, Claudia's personal and professional journey led her to uncover the dark realities of World War II’s "Citizen Isolation Centers," a topic explored in her powerful documentary A Bitter Legacy.
In our conversation, we dive deep into the intersection of past and present injustices, examining how the forced internment of Japanese Americans echoes in today’s mass deportation threats, immigrant detentions, and violations of civil rights. We discuss the Enemy Aliens Act of 1798, used as a justification during WWII and again today by the current administration. Claudia’s work, including her latest film, Exile - Community in Conflict, confronts these historical parallels head-on. She shares her firsthand experiences documenting protests at detention centers across the country, from Texas to California, and the urgent need for truth-telling in the face of rising xenophobia.
We also discuss the power of art and storytelling as acts of resistance—how the men and women imprisoned during WWII used paintings, poetry, and prayer to sustain their spirits, and how those lessons resonate in today’s fights for justice. With history repeating itself in disturbing ways, Claudia’s activism through Tsuru for Solidarity reminds us that silence is not an option.
This episode will challenge you. It will inform you. And it will push you to take action. Tune in, learn the truth, and—most importantly—use your voice. Protest. Organize. Vote. Because the fight for justice never ends. SHOW NOTES
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As a fourth generation Japanese American…
or a Nikkei Yonsei, I remember the “social amnesia” that Professor Tetsuden Kashima talks about in this film, where no one in my immediate family would talk freely about their experience in the American Concentration Camps. They would rather forget about it.
My father’s family, being based in the Bay Area went first to Tanforan as an assembly center, and then to Topaz, Utah. My mother’s family, based in Sacramento went to Walerga Assembly Center, and then was sent by train to Tule Lake. When Tule Lake became a Segregation Center, her family went first to Topaz and then to Amache.
Both sides of my family were pretty wealthy before WWII, having worked hard for so many years, they had the respect of many in their community, many who were not Nikkei. But after the war, having lost everything, and having endured so much pain, they “didn’t want to talk about it.” My six siblings and I simply accepted this for many years.
I realized I’ve denied my Japanese heritage for a long time. By exploring this Nikkei history in these American Concentration Camps, I began to fully appreciate my cultural heritage and all that pain and indignation all the Nikkei families have suffered.
More than four years after starting this film, having interviewed dozens of historians, scholars, former incarcerees, and having personally visited and filmed at many of the former confinement sites, I have a deeper understanding of the many issues that were affecting the Nikkei people now, as well as before, and during World War II.
I hope I have created a film that communicates this deeper understanding of what was done to the Nikkei people here in this country, with a few connections of how these same issues are still occurring to people of other cultural heritages today, and what can be done to move this country and all of its people forward in a just, equitable manner.
This feature documentary investigates the “Citizen Isolation Centers”, harsh and secret World War II prisons created within the Japanese American incarceration camp system to separate citizens deemed by the American Government as “trouble-makers” from the other Nikkei prisoners. These secret prisons have been called “precursors to Guantanamo.”
Interviews of professors, artists, and other former prisoners of the Japanese American incarceration system and archival and present day photographs bring this little known piece of United States history to life.
The repercussions from the four major Supreme Court cases related to this illegal imprisonment of all the 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry are also investigated. The story of Japanese American incarceration is increasingly relevant to today’s conversations about civil rights abuses and racial profiling. A Bitter Legacy makes clear why civic engagement and socio-political activism is so necessary to maintain a democratic society, especially during times of upheaval.
The Santa Fe Internment Camp held the largest number of Japanese American detainees of any of the internment camps run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) or the Army. Santa Fe initially held Issei men from the West Coast who had been arrested in the days and weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor starting in March 1942.
After their hearings, these men were released or paroled to other camps, with Santa Fe closing for the first time in September 1942.
The camp reopened in March 1943 when the Army began transferring civilian internees back to INS camps. In 1945, Nisei/Kibei renunciants and Issei from Tule Lake were transferred to Santa Fe, and the population grew to over 2,000. By the time the camp closed for good in May 1946, 4,555 Japanese American male internees had passed through Santa Fe.
A marker overlooking the site of the camp was dedicated in 2002, capping a contentious process that saw vocal local opposition.
Source: Claudia Katayanagi’s ‘Community in Conflict’
More Pending
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