In the coming weeks, the college students who participated in our annual program, Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive, will share their thoughts about this year’s program. Katari, a program of the Manzanar Committee and the Manzanar National Historic Site, is in its fifth year, working to give young people some of the tools they’ll... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: Everything That Rises Must Converge
We end 2019 with the final reflection written by the students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive. In this story, one of our students, who had a family member who was unjustly incarcerated at Manzanar during World War II, shared his thoughts on how the trip to the... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: Lost Marbles Aren’t Always a Bad Thing
For the two returning students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive at the Manzanar National Historic Site, they weren’t just tagging along with the rest of the group, going through the motions after having been through the same experience the previous year. Rather, their challenge was to gain... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: Learning That Everyone is Connected
We are in the final stretch of publishing reflections from the students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive. In this piece, one of our students learned that we are all connected, one way or another. by Jordyn Sato I have attended the Manzanar Pilgrimage before and I learned... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: Making Important Connections to Other Community’s Experiences
Here is another reflection written by the students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive. In this installment, a student who is not Japanese Americam shares his thoughts about the important connections he made between the experience of Japanese Americans and those of his family and his community. by... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: For One Student, The Second Time’s The Charm
On Christmas Eve 2019, we continue our series of reflections written by the students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive. In this installment, we feature the thoughts of a student who attended the Katari trip at the Manzanar National Historic Site for a second time. He described the... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: Learning About Manzanar’s Orphanage Hit One Student “Really Hard”
Many people are unaware that even orphans were among the more than 120,000 Japanese/Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated in American concentration camps, and other confinement sites, during World War II. Indeed, 101 orphans were rounded up and incarcerated, all of them at Manzanar’s Children’s Village. For one of the students who participated in the... Continue Reading →
2019 Katari Project: “We Have a Duty to Keep These Stories Alive”
We continue with our series of reflection pieces from students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive, November 2-3, 2019, at the Manzanar National Historic Site. In this installment, one of our students shared his perspective on the importance of ensuring that the stories of Japanese American incarcerees are... Continue Reading →
A Changed Perspective on the Question, “What Would You Do If You Were In Their Shoes?”
In the sixth installment of reflection pieces written by the students who participated in the 2019 edition of Katari: Keeping Japanese American Stories Alive, November 2-3, 2019, at the Manzanar National Historic Site, one of our students wrote about how the Katari trip resulted in a sea change in her thinking about how to deal... Continue Reading →