The musical legacy of Japanese American incarceration

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In February of 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government issued an executive order to incarcerate people of Japanese descent. That legacy has become a defining story of Japanese American identity. In this episode, B.A. Parker and producer Jess Kung explore how Japanese American musicians across generations turn to that story as aw ay to explore and express identity. Featuring Kishi Bashi, Erin Aoyama and Mary Nomura.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	At the Plano Money Podcast, we talk to anyone who can help us understand the economy
0:04.6	Fortune tellers, tango dancers, obscure government bureaucrats.
0:09.8	Oh, the obscure ones are the best.
0:11.6	Totally. And of course we talk to the smartest economists
0:14.4	to explain everything from inflation and disinflation
0:17.3	to how manatees got addicted to fossil fuel.
0:20.6	That is Planet Money from NPR.
0:25.0	Hey everyone, you're listening to Coateswich. I'm B.A. Parker.
0:29.0	And today I'm joined by one of the show's producers Jess Kong.
0:33.6	Hey Jess.
0:34.2	Hey Parker.
0:35.9	Okay, today I want to talk about Japanese American musicians
0:39.7	of different generations,
0:41.6	and particularly how their music relates to the incarceration of people of Japanese descent in the US during World War II.
0:49.0	And I want to start on an unbearably cold morning on a snowy field in southeast Arkansas.
0:55.0	Actually, Parker, this is a scene from a documentary. I can show you.
1:00.0	So there's a man in front of a big stone marker and cuts to him standing in the vast
1:09.0	snowy field playing the violin. The place is the site of the Jerome War relocation center,
1:17.0	where more than 8,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated over 21 months.
1:22.0	It was the last camp to open and the first to close.
1:25.8	It was so cold that my brain was not functioning.
1:28.8	You know?
	...

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