Thursday, February 18th | 5:00pm MT
When the US government incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II, it also made a concerted effort to pressure the young Nisei generation to assimilate into the American culture at large and abandon the Japanese parts of their culture. Japanese American culture, however, proved more resilient than the government could imagine. Nearly 80 years later, in a climate of peaceful US-Japan relations, many Japanese Americans still hold fast to or seek out community and tradition, even as they look ahead to the future. Join an intergenerational panel of luminaries for a frank and personal discussion of identity and cultural survival in the 21st century.
Panelists include:
- Norman Mineta, former United States Secretary of Commerce and Transportation
- Shirley Ann Higuchi, Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
- Clement Hanami, Vice President of Exhibitions and Art Director at the Japanese American National Museum
- Noriko Sanefuji, Museum Specialist at the Smithsonian Museum of American History
- Erin Aoyama, Ph.D. Student in American Studies at Brown University
This program is provided through the support of the Embassy of Japan in the United States.