Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings is a compelling portrait of an inspiring and inventive musician whose virtuoso skills on the ukulele have transformed all previous notions of the instrument’s potential. Through intimate conversations with Shimabukuro, Life on Four Strings reveals the cultural and personal influences that have shaped the man and the musician. On the road from Los Angeles to New York to Japan, the film captures the solitary life on tour, the exhilaration of performance, the wonder of newfound fame, and the loneliness of separation from home and family.

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura, the film will premiere on PBS in Winter 2013. The film screening will be followed by an appearance from Jake Shimabukuro and a Q&A with the audience.

Note: This event will not be webcasted or recorded.

Presented by:

• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
• Center for Asian American Media
• Pacific Islanders in Communications

Sponsored by:

• National Museum of the American Indian
• Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
• Southwest Airlines
• DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival

Related Links:

• Download the PDF flyer
• Smithsonian Magazine: Hawai`i’s Troubadour of Aloha
• Watch the trailer for Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings below:

Shanghai Express and Hud film posters

The Smithsonian presents two films to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month:

1 PM: Shanghai Express (1932, 80 min) is a tale of romance and intrigue that unfolds aboard an express train during the Chinese civil war. Known for its Oscar–winning cinematography by Lee Garmes, this film features Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, and Anna May Wong. Melissa Bisagni (National Museum of the American Indian’s film and video manager) introduces the screening.

3 PM: Hud (1963, 112 min.) starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, and Patricia Neal, depicts a Texas ranching family coming apart at the seams. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars and won 3, including James Wong Howe’s statuette for Best Cinematography (Black and White). Konrad Ng (director, Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Program) introduces this screening.

Portraits of Anna May Wong and James Wong Howe are on view in the related exhibition, Twentieth-Century Americans.

Poster design by Nigel Briggs, National Museum of American History

By Noriko Sanefuji (Curatorial Assistant) and Christine Chou (intern)

This year’s Day of Remembrance (DOR) was special for many reasons. Not only is it the 70th anniversary since the signing of Executive Order 9066, the action that led to the imprisonment of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, it was also to honor the Japanese American WWII veterans that were recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

The program began with a keynote speech by Secretary of Veterans Affairs General Eric Shinseki (watch the video clip above or download his speech here). He reflected on the roles of Japanese Americans who volunteered in the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service during World War II. General Shinseki recognized their merit in receiving the award and stated that their legacy shows what it means to be an American to future generations. He said:

Download PDF

“In all my years in the military, I can find no better, no more compelling, and no more inspiring story of what it means to be an American than the stories and battle histories of the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service. They were premiere warfighting units ranking among the very best in U.S. military history. The legacy of those who served in those units is a tradition of patriotism, loyalty, courage, honor, dedication and sacrifice that’s as old as the American Revolution. Their’s is an American story.”

General Shinseki’s keynote speech was followed by a film highlighting the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony.  Afterward, there was a panel discussion that included Grant Ichikawa, MIS veteran; Gerald Yamada, Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA) president; Christine Sato-Yamazaki Chairperson, National Veteran Network; and Doug Sterner, author of Go For Broke.  The panel was moderated by Franklin Odo, former director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program. Everyone provided insights about the significance of the Congressional Gold Medal and the process of recognizing Japanese American WWII veterans.

Day of Remembrance Recap

Dr. Odo began the discussion by asking the panelists: “What does the Congressional Gold Medal mean to you?”  Mr. Ichikawa recalled his experiences in the MIS and reflected on how proud he is to be a recipient of the medal.  Ms. Sato-Yamazaki expressed her feelings on how the award ceremony represented the completion of a difficult, two-year effort to obtain congressional approval for the medal.  Mr. Sterner explained how the medal was the highest honor bestowed by Congress.  According to Mr. Yamada, the award gives JAVA the chance to make the Nisei soldiers’ legacy a living story, rather than just a historic one.

Museum visitors viewed the actual Congressional Gold Medal up close during the event.  Objects made inside the barbed wire camps during WWII were also on display at a nearby education cart. Artifacts were brought out of storage for DOR, and experts were also available to answer questions from the visitors at the education carts. Representatives from the U.S. Mint were there to discuss how the medal was created.

Interns Christine Chou (Smithsonian APA Program) and Erin Anderson (National Museum of American History) talk to a visitor at an education cart. Photo by Donald Hurlbert, NMNH

Smithsonian APA Program intern Christine Chou designed a second educational cart as an interactive way of learning about daily life in internment camps. Objects on display included typical mess hall food, tools from working life, school artifacts, leisure items (like a baseball), and craft materials used for art projects. Historical photos complimented the objects to provide a more complete picture of camp living conditions. Everyone was encouraged to pick up and touch the objects. Some of the most popular items were the medical tools, including a stethoscope, head mirror, and elbow splint, which visitors were free to try on and use.

Another popular item, the dog tags of a Japanese American World War II veteran, belonged to Grant Ichikawa, who was interned before joining the military. As visitors held his dog tags, they were told that Mr. Ichikawa was actually in the museum that day to tell people about his experiences, and it was a quietly powerful moment. For visitors and volunteers at the cart that day, having the opportunity to interact with these artifacts helped foster a deeper connection to our national history.

Related Links:

• View the original post for DOR 2012
• Education Resources from American History
• More about the Congressional Gold Medal
• Photos of this event on Flickr

Related Blogs:

• Day of Remembrance: 70 Years After Executive Order 9066
  February 13, 2012 – Written by one of our interns for American History’s O Say Can You See blog, this entry features photos of Asian Pacific American WWII artifacts.
• A Day of Remembrance
  February 27, 2012 - A recap of the day of events written by Sarah Emerson, a fellow in the Office of Public Affairs.
• Day of Remembrance: An interview with Grant Ichikawa
  March 5, 2012 - Blog from Noriko Sanefuji, curatorial assistant at the APA Program and program assistant in the Division of Work and Industry at the National Museum of American History.

Related Podcast: History Explorer: Japanese American Internment and WWII Service
Listen to the Podcast (MP3 file)
View more photos

Curatorial assistant Noriko Sanefuji interviews Grant Ichikawa, a U.S. veteran who enlisted after being relocated to a Japanese American internment camp with his family in 1942. Allowed to join the army after a need for interpreters, Mr. Ichikawa served the country proudly. In 2011, he and other veterans were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his service.

Curatorial assistant Noriko Sanefuji interviews Grant Ichikawa at the National Museum of American History, February 2012.

TalkBack Board

We also utilized the National Museum of American History’s TalkBack Boards program to invite the museum visitors to post their comments.

Question:
Today the U.S. Mint will be presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Japanese Americans to honor their service during WII. How do you think America should honor its veterans?
You can join the online conversation by clicking here.

Update: This event has passed, you can read the recap and view pictures.

For ten years, the South Asian Literary and Theatre Arts Festival (SALTAF) has been an annual celebration of South Asian creative talent, showcasing the work of established and emerging artists and connecting them to a wide audience in the Washington, D.C. area. The festival emerged from the book club created by the Network of South Asian Professionals D.C. (NetSAP-DC) and has blossomed with its partnership for the last eight years with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (APAP).

Featured Literary Artists:

• Aatish Taseer (Noon)
• Mitali Perkins (Bamboo People)
• Nina Godiwala (Suits: A Woman on Wall Street)
• Shailja Patel (Migritude)
• Roksana Badruddoja (Eyes of a Storm)

The festival will open with a screening of the film The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan to be followed by a conversation with the director, Phil Grabsky.

This event is co-sponsored by NetSAP-DC.

Program Schedule

Amigo Film Screening with Director John Sayles. Click to enlarge flyer.

To commemorate Filipino American History Month, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program presents a screening of the film Amigo and a conversation with the director: the critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated John Sayles.

Amigo, the 17th feature film from Sayles, provides an optic on the easily forgotten history of the Philippine-American War, a short lived but brutal war that claimed the lives of about 4,000 Americans and between 200,000 to 600,000 Filipinos. Amigo stars legendary Filipino actor Joel Torre as Rafael, a village mayor caught in the crossfire of the war, and Academy-Award winner, Chris Cooper, as U.S. Colonel Hardacre. Filipino American scholar Theo Gonzalves, a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will moderate the conversation with Sayles.

Click here to download a PDF of the flyer.

Discussion moderator Theo Gonzalves and director of "Amigo," John Sayles.

From left: Nelson George, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, Barry Cole, and Konrad Ng. Click image for more photos.

Following the screening of Drunken Master at 2 p.m., join a panel of experts at 4 p.m. for a lively discussion about the long-running relationship between martial arts movies and rap music.

Panelists:

Barry Cole, member of Hop Fu (Hip-hop meets Kung Fu)
Nelson George, filmmaker and author of Hip Hop America
Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist based in Brooklyn

This event is cosponsored with the Freer Gallery of Art. It is presented in conjunction with:

•  The exhibition RACE: Are We So Different? on view at the National Museum of Natural History through January 2, 2012.
•  Part of the series Let’s Talk About RACE – at the Smithsonian
•  Part of the series Sixteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival
•  Part of the series The Hip-hop/Kung Fu Connection

Bring the whole family to the Smithsonian’s kickoff celebration for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! This day of activities centers on Sweet & Sour, a display that traces the evolution of Chinese food in the United States and the long history of Chinese immigration. Visitors can watch the film, The Killing of a Chinese Cookie, join a discussion with director Derek Shimoda, and participate in many hands-on activities. Children and their families can work with artist Sushmita Mazumdar to create a storybook illustrating a personal story from their own kitchen. Teens from the Hirshhorn’s ARTLAB+ video production program will then interview the children and record their stories, producing videos for the families and for posting on the site www.SmithsonianEducation.org/Heritage.  There will also be curator talks with Cedric Yeh, Deputy Chair and Associate Curator in the Division of Armed Forces History at NMAH. He is also the Co-Chair for the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Committee.

Schedule

Ongoing Activities

Handmade Storybooks with Sushmita Mazumdar
LeFrak Lobby, by entrance to Carmichael Auditorium
Starts on the hour and half hour

Make Clay Fortune Cookies
Activity area at Sweet & Sour exhibition case, East Special Artifact Wall
Special thanks to Meiwah Restaurant for their support of this activity.

Record Your Family Story on Camera
Presidential Suite, 12-2 p.m. and 2:30-4 p.m.
Special thanks to the Pearson Foundation for their support of this activity.

APA bookshelf at the American History Museum bookstore

Chopsticks and Spices Carts
First Floor

Cookbook Sales
LeFrak Lobby, by entrance to Carmichael Auditorium

Special Asian Café Menu
Stars and Stripes Café, First Floor

Related Links:

• Sweet & Sour Showcase
• The Killing of a Chinese Cookie Official Website
• Poster of The Killing of a Chinese Cookie
• Sushmita Mazumdar’s Official Website
• Download the Smithsonian Parking Map (PDF)

Smithsonian Participants:

• Asian Pacific American Heritage Committee
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Museum of American History
• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program
• Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies
• Smithsonian Heritage Months Steering Committee

Air travel for participants is provided by Southwest Airlines.

DOR Panelists. From left: guest speaker Terry Shima (442nd RCT Veteran), film director Junichi Suzuki, and panel moderator Noriko Sanefuji. Photo by Sandra Vuong.

More than 200 people attended the screening of Junichi Suzuki’s film 442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity at the Smithsonian Institution’s Annual Day of Remembrance on Saturday, February 19, 2011, at the Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum of American History. The program commemorated the 69th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that led to the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Director Junichi Suzuki signing DVDs after the film screening. Photo by Jim McCallum.

As a freelance film director and producer from Japan, Junichi Suzuki provided a unique perspective on the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Asian American unit composed mostly of Japanese Americans that became the most decorated U.S. Regiment of World War II. Through this significant film, Suzuki hopes to share the relatively unknown history and legacy of the 442nd to both Japanese and American audiences.

Terry Shima joined the panel discussion as a surviving 442nd veteran. After returning home from the war, Shima recounted the 442nd’s march down Constitution Avenue where they were received by President Harry S. Truman at the Ellipse. In his message to the troops on July 15, 1946, President Truman declared “you fought not only the enemy but you fought prejudice—and you have won.”¹ Despite internment, the 442nd affirmed their loyalty to the U.S. by heroically fighting in combat and risking their lives.  Their victory abroad was a victory at home.

To find out more about this inspiring film, please visit www.442film.com

• Click here to view more photos on our Flickr page
• Click here to download the program (PDF)
• Click here to see the original post of this event

This public program was sponsored by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, National Museum of American History, National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, Japanese American Citizens League, and the Japanese American Veterans Association.

442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity
Film Screening and Discussion with Director Junichi Suzuki

To observe the 69th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which led to the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program and the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, present the film 442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity at the Smithsonian Institution. This film, directed by Junichi Suzuki, narrates the history and legacy of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, known as the most decorated US Regiment during WWII. In addition to the use of archival footage, the film includes interviews with several surviving veterans including United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye and George Sakato. Both veterans were recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the U.S. government. A forum with the director, Junichi Suzuki, will follow the screening. 

Co-sponsors of the program include the Japanese American Citizens League, the Japanese American Veterans Association, and Southwest Airlines.

• Click here to watch the trailer on the film’s official website
• View the official press release

Director Junichi Suzuki

Auditorium info:
The Carmichael Auditorium is on the first floor of the National Museum of American History, near the museum entrance facing Constitution Avenue.

Parking info:
Please click here to download a PDF for more details on where to park at the Smithsonian.

Closest Metro:
Smithsonian and Federal Triangle stations will be closed for the weekend.  Please use Metro Center or L’Enfant Plaza stations.

Metrorail Closings for Presidents Day Weekend:
Blue and Orange Lines – No train service between Metro Center and  L’Enfant Plaza.  Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations will be closed from February 19 – 21.
Click here for more information

Martial arts movie icon Bruce Lee would have turned 70 in 2010. The Freer Gallery of Art honored this legendary performer with a screening of one of his classics and an exclusive dance performance by a choreographer inspired by his work. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Provost’s Office and Graduate School presented the first event in this two-part series, a film screening of Enter the Dragon.

Bruce Lee’s most popular film also served as his epitaph: he died shortly after filming it. He plays a master Shaolin warrior sent to infiltrate the fortress of a villainous former Shaolin disciple under the guise of participating in a martial arts contest. A big-budget Hollywood production set mostly in Hong Kong, it shows off Lee’s astonishing physical abilities and abundant charisma in a succession of dazzling fight scenes. As film critic Jeffrey M. Anderson writes in Combustible Celluloid, “It’s easy to see why Lee was — and still is — such a big star. He had a charm and charisma that few have. The camera loved him. He had that special undefinable quality that James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and a few others have.” (Dir., Robert Clouse, United States, 1973, 99 min.)

Related Event—Power Moves: From Bruce Lee’s Intercepting Fist to Hip Hop and Beyond.
The second event in this two-part series features choreographer/dancer Peggy Choy as she re-envisions the legacy of martial artist and film star Bruce Lee, through presentation of her recent work that fuses Asian martial arts with diverse forms of dance from Korean court dance to hip-hop. Choy and her dancers generate a vivid playing field of dynamic movement while exploring Bruce Lee’s intentions behind creating Jeet Kune Do or “the way of the intercepting fist”.
See the original listing of this event by clicking here.
See photos from this event by clicking here.