Project MUSE – Tadaima 2021: A Community Virtual Pilgrimage (review)

In 1969, a group of japanese Americans, largely Sansei and Nisei,1 visited Manzanar. Located about 225 miles from Los Angeles, Manzanar was one of the War Relocation Authority detention centers used to incarcerate japanese Americans during World War II. In the Tadaima 2021 Opening Ceremony, Carrie Morita explained this 1969 journey as an undertake to find “ camp. ” This was a search for a physical rate, the actual web site of the Manzanar War Relocation Center, but it was besides a search for meaning, an baffling thing that happened to Morita ’ s family that she could not access. Morita tied this first gear journey to a longer history of japanese american right, a movement that resulted in an apology, individual monetary compensation, and collective educational funds from the federal government, to individuals and their families the United States government had incarcerated. Morita besides positions this foremost travel as the origins of community pilgrimage. Since the journey to Manzanar in 1969, even pilgrimages to the captivity sites have become a growing separate of the japanese American community and depart of the efforts to remember the wartime captivity. In 2020, japanese american Memorial Pilgrimages ( JAMP ) developed Tadaima 2020 as a reception to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to gather for these regular pilgrimage programs. It was described by the organizers as “ a collaborative undertake, involving representatives from many different contingents of the Nikkei community along with scholars, artists, and educators committed to actively memorializing the history of japanese american captivity during World War II. ” 2 It spanned nine weeks that moved chronologically from early immigration of japanese to America at the change by reversal of the twentieth century to the wartime captivity to the Redress Movement in the 1970s and 80s. The 2020 program blended alive and pre-recorded arts and culture program and academic history work presented by scholars. [End Page 127]

Tadaima 2021 was a much smaller program, only spanning five weeks. Unlike 2020 ’ mho course of study, the Tadaima 2021 lineup did not have clear themes, although the overall pilgrimage sought to “ savoir-faire identity, indigeneity, and intersectionality as they relate to the WWII captivity of japanese Americans. ” 3 Although I appreciated the march through time that 2020 sought to present, I thought the 2021 program ’ s triangulation of identity, indigeneity, and intersectionality was a more stimulate approach.

Over half of Tadaima 2021 consisted of pre-recorded scheduling from partner organizations like Densho, the japanese american National Museum, and others. many of the recordings were made in 2021 for early virtual programs that could be re-broadcast during Tadaima, while others were older projects of commemoration. These, and even some of the program shared as live-streams during Tadaima 2021, reflected a broad range of preexistent interests and projects of japanese American community members and scholars.4 While they compellingly captured a snapshot of community exercise, they made Tadaima 2021 palpate like a buffet—without a preset menu, you ’ ra dislodge to pick and choose from the wide range of offerings that most appeal to you. This is not unlike to some of the in-person pilgrimage experiences. While there are many regular, ritualize aspects of pilgrimages ( for exercise, many pilgrimages offer interfaith remembrances of the dead ), some of the multi-day pilgrimages take on a conference-like atmosphere with scholars and artists presenting whatever fresh bring they ’ re showcasing at the moment.

Within the programs live-streamed for Tadaima 2021, the themes of identity, indigeneity, and intersectionality presented highly elastic categories that allowed for a image of programs. Regarding identity, programs included “ Say Hello to the Bad Guys, ” a conversation between two Nikkei actors about masculinity, “ J-Town here to Stay, ” which featured community members from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle ’ s ethnic neighborhoods, and synergistic workshops with writer Alden Hayashi. Intersectionality and identity besides overlapped, as with the Okairei co-sponsored program for LGBTQ+ Nikkei. While the program occasionally used the concept of intersectionality as defined by legal scholar …

source : https://usakairali.com
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