The Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies and the UCLA Center for World Music present a film screening of “Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the WWII Internment Camps” Friday, Jan.22 at the Jan Popper Theater in Schoenberg Hall.
Through its exclusive interviews, authentic historical photographs, musical performances and rare archival film footage, the documentary enlightens viewers with the customs and traditions of Japan that Japanese Americans strove to maintain during World War II. In spite of regulations that prohibited the practice of their ethnic heritage and the harsh consequences for Issei (first generation) arts masters, many Japanese Americans nevertheless chose to practice and explore the various art forms of Japan, such as music, theater and dance.
Special appearances by filmmaker and creative director Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto-Wong and former internee Takayo Tsubouchi Fischer will follow the film screening. Muramoto-Wong will talk about how her interest in Japanese tradition during WWII over the last 50 years developed from her mother’s koto lessons at Topaz and Tule Lake camps. Tsubouchi Fischer will share her experiences as an internee at Jerome and Rohwer camps in Arkansas, where she studied kabuki, classical Japanese dance and shamisen in camp.
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Visit the Ethnomusicology department to register.
