Do you know there is a Japanese American student mural near the University of Washington campus?

The center piece of the mural is a black-and-white photo of some 100 Asian American students taken in the autumn of 1941 at the University of Washington campus. Among them were many Japanese American students. A few months after the  photo was taken, the war between the United States and Japan started, and  these Japanese American students were taken to the wartime incarceration camps  just like other Japanese Americans were. But it seems that we do not know about their experiences as much as we should. Why do we not know? Why did they not tell us? And, why did we not ask?

In this episode of "beyond generations," you will hear two stories around this Japanese American student mural. One, about a student in the mural photo who went to the incarceration camp and to the European theater to fight for America during WWII, and taught his post-war born son to be as American as he can be. The other, about an artist who uses public art as a means to bring people’s attention to injustice that Japanese American people experienced during WWII, including her own family.

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Special thanks to Mike Eguchi and Erin Shigaki for their stories.

Music by ZakharValaha from Pixabay

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References:

The U District Mural Project by The U District Partnership

https://udistrictpartnership.org/u-district-mural-project/

*You can find Erin’s mural on University Way NE, on the wall in the parking lot between bb.q Chicken UW and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Minidoka Pilgrimage

https://www.minidokapilgrimage.org/

442nd Regimental Combat Team, Densho Encyclopedia by Densho

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team/

About Erin Shigaki

https://www.purplegatedesign.com/about/

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