Click Here For Rapid Response Efforts in the Twin Cities

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

AAPIs United in the Twin Cities

This newly established website was created by community volunteers and allies to provide rapid response resources in support of AAPI families and communities who have been harmed by ICE surge in Minnesota. Click through the links for various rapid response efforts underway led by -- and for -- Hmong, Southeast Asian American, and other AAPI communities in the greater Twin Cities.

St. Paul activist Thao Xiong taken by ICE

On Wednesday, immigration agents detained a volunteer food shelf delivery driver at a St. Paul community center. Over the objections of staffers and legal observers, federal agents approached, handcuffed and detained Thao Xiong in the center parking lot, where they can be seen on video forcing him into one of three black SUVs. "I showed them my documents already,” Xiong can be heard attempting to explain.

ICE is a Continuation of American History

"I’m not writing this to call anyone out or even correct anyone. This shit is incredibly bad. But I really do hope that all these people who are just now taking the red pill and seeing America for what it is will also see that it always has been this way and can join forces with us. Those people organizing in Minneapolis and St. Paul (and all the other cities brutalized by ICE) are heroes. I want those people to know they are not inventing something new. They are continuing the fight that has always existed in this country. They should be proud of that, and they should feel connected to that. The Japanese Americans could have used people like that in 1942."

Japanese American soldiers once branded ‘enemy aliens’ to be promoted posthumously

Seven Japanese American soldiers will be promoted to officer ranks in a solemn ceremony Monday, eight decades after they died fighting for the U.S. during World War II despite having been branded "enemy aliens."

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26 New Asian and Pacific Islander Books for your 2026 TBR

A helpful roundup of 26 new books by Asian and Pacific Islander authors to read in 2026.

This Spring, Baseball Returns to Manzanar

The Manzanar Baseball Project will stage two games at the Manzanar National Historic Site.

Here's an incredible project that could use your eyes and dollars -- a unique community event that combines sports, history, memory and social justice. This spring, The Manzanar Baseball Project will stage two baseball games on a newly restored field at the Manzanar National Historic Site in the Mojave Desert.

Manzanar was the first of ten detention camps where Americans of Japanese ancestry were unjustly imprisoned by the U.S. government during World War II. Overall, it was the largest mass incarceration in American history with 120,000 people being imprisoned between 1942 and 1945.

For many incarcerated Japanese Americans during this time, resilience meant creating a sense of "home" in any way possible, including playing sports. And in the 1940s, baseball was the most popular sport in the country -- including and especially in the camps, where dozens of leagues were formed with hundreds of players.

Sacred Book Honors Japanese Americans Incarcerated During World War II

The Ireichō is on display at the Japanese American National Museum.



Over the weekend in Los Angeles, the Japanese American National Museum invited the public to view and sign the Ireichō, a sacred book that records -- for the first time ever -- the names of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly imprisoned in U.S. Army, Department of Justice, and War Relocation Authority camps during World War II.

Visitors were invited to view the names and use a special Japanese hanko to leave a mark for each person in the Ireichō as a way to honor those incarcerated during World War II. Community participation will "activate" it and rectify the historical record by correcting misspelled names or revealing names that may have been omitted from the record.

The Ireichō will be on display at JANM for one year. A companion virtual monument is available online.

More here: 'There’s our family name': Sacred book honors Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII

Wakaji Matsumoto — An Artist in Two Worlds: Los Angeles and Hiroshima, 1917–1944

Online exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum



Wakaji Matsumoto — An Artist in Two Worlds: Los Angeles and Hiroshima, 1917–1944 is an online exhibition and public program about an artist and pioneer in Pictorialism who documented the lives of Japanese immigrant farmers in rural Los Angeles during the early 1900s and created rare images of urban life in Hiroshima prior to the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.

The online exhibition, presented by the Japanese American National Museum, highlights rarely seen early photographs of Los Angeles prior to World War II and of Hiroshima before the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb through the single lens of photographer Wakaji Matsumoto.

"Wakaji Matsumoto's photographs of farms that were operated by Japanese Americans in the Los Angeles area demonstrate the difficult life of Japanese Americans and their resolve and resilience," says Dennis Reed, the curator of the exhibition. "His photographs of Hiroshima are the largest-known photographic archive of the city prior to the atomic bomb. Today, our knowledge of the city's horrific fate lends a pall of melancholy over these tender images. They bear the weight of history."

View the online exhibition here: janm.org/exhibits/wakaji-matsumoto

Indiana University Apologizes for Banning Japanese American Students During World War II

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



President McRobbie addresses IU’s WWII-era Japanese American student ban
This week, Indiana University formally apologized for a World War II-era policy banning admission of Japanese American students between 1942 and 1945. The official apology, issued in a letter from President Michael McRobbie, follows several years of advocacy and a petition delivered to the university in February. The statement expresses regret that the university "ailed to recognize the needs of the 12 Japanese American students who were seeking a new academic home during a time when they were unjustly excluded and removed from their home institutions, in violation of their civil rights." McRobbie also outlines several official actions the university will take to address the issue. Read the letter here.

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Suspect in 'racially motivated' attack on elderly man charged with assault
In Vancouver, a man has been charged in the racially motivated assault of an elderly Asian man. Cameras caught Jamie Allen Bezanson shoving the 92-year old victim, who suffers from severe dementia, in a convenience store on March 13. Store employees were trying to help the victim when the suspect started shouting anti-Asian remarks. The altercation continued outside, where the Bezanson shoved the victim, who fell to the ground and hit his head. Bezanson has been charged with one count of assault. I don't know, I feel like there should be another separate charge for being a Totally Despicable Racist Piece of Shit.

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Police, FBI Investigating Death of Professional Poker Player Susie Zhao
Police in Michigan have identified the woman whose badly burned body was found in a state recreation area as professional poker player The body was discovered at a parking area near the Pontiac Lake Trail the morning of July 13, according to police. Investigators say the case could be connected to Zhao's travels in the poker circuit around the country, or could be the result of meeting someone in the area when she returned recently. Anyone with information or who might have seen Zhao between July 11 and 13 is asked to contact the White Lake Township Police Department at 248-698-4400.

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Two Teens Charged in Murder of Arizona State University Professor
Two teenagers have been charged with murder in the death of an Arizona State University professor who was reported missing in March. Junseok Chae, an associate dean for research and an engineering professor, was reported missing on March 25 after he did not return home from work. The break in the case came after police in Shreveport, Louisiana, responding to a suspicious vehicle call, encountered Javian Ezell and Gabrielle Austin, both 18, and determined they were in Chae's car. Upon further investigation, deputies determined that Chae was killed at an intersection north of Phoenix, and his body was placed in a dumpster. Ezell and Austin were extradited to Arizona, where they were arrested on July 15 and charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and theft of means of transportation.

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Promotional Image For Disney’s 'Raya and the Last Dragon' Has Debuted
Disney has released the first promotional image for the upcoming animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon, giving us our first good look at the title character. Raya and the Last Dragon will be an epic fantasy adventure with southeast Asian themes, set in a realm called Lumandra, described as "a reimagined earth inhabited by an ancient civilization." Five clans form the land of the dragon, and Raya is determined to find the last dragon. Featuring the voices of Cassie Steele and Awkwafina, the film is due out in theaters on March 12, 2021.

So You Made the Sidewalk Racist

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



"Fuck Off Gooks"
This heartwarming message was spotted on the sidewalk at Eddy and Laguna in San Francisco.

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Japanese Americans speak out against Andrew Yang's Op-Ed
Japanese American leaders are criticizing former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang's call to Asian Americans to display patriotism during the coronavirus pandemic, saying it brings back painful memories of the rhetoric directed at Americans of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated during World War II.

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"China Poisoned Our People"
A new campaign ad from Republican congressional candidate Kathaleen Wall, who is running for Texas' 22nd Congressional District, seizes the moment and goes heavy on the anti-China rhetoric. "China poisoned our people," a narrator says in the ad, which then lauds President Donald Trump for calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus." You can probably expect to see a lot more of this shit pretty soon.

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hey @andrewyang, consider this me showing my "AMERICAN-NESS" pic.twitter.com/ENfs9wnF3G

— Jenny Yang (@jennyyangtv) April 3, 2020

Honk If You Won't Hate Crime Me
America! Comedian Jenny Yang shows America her American-ness.

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At long last! We get the new full-length album from singer/songwriter Jane Lui, who is now making music as Surrija. New name, new music, new sound. The album's crowdfunding backers have had the privilege of listening to it for months, and now the rest of world's ears get to partake in this fantastic new record. Hear it on SoundCloud, Spotify and the all the usual places you get music.

Skeleton identified as lost hiker from Manzanar

Giichi Matsumura died during a fishing trip in 1945 when he got caught in a snowstorm.



A skeleton found by hikers last fall near California's second-highest peak has been identified as a Japanese American artist who had left the incarceration camp at Manzanar to paint in the mountains during the last days of World War II.

Giichi Matsumura was on a hiking trip on July 29, 1945 when he stopped to paint a watercolor, intending to catch up later with his group. He got caught in a freak summer snowstorm and died. His remains were later recovered and buried in the mountains, but the remote gravesite was lost to time.

Last October, hikers stumbled across an intact human skeleton while on their way to the top of Mount Williamson. Authorities used DNA to determine that the skeleton was indeed the remains of Matsumura.

More here: Skeleton found by Sierra hikers is that of Manzanar internee

Wat Misaka, first nonwhite player in the NBA, dies at 95

Japanese American point guard debuted with the New York Knicks in 1947.



Wat Misaka, the pioneering Japanese American athlete who became the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball, died Wednesday in Salt Lake City. He was 95.

Wat Misaka, First Nonwhite in Modern Pro Basketball, Dies at 95

Misaka, the son of Japanese immigrants, starred for the University of Utah on teams that won two national tournament championships. In 1947, he made professional debut with the New York Knicks -- then part of the Basketball Association of America, a forerunner of the National Basketball.

#NeverAgainIsNow: Fort Sill

A Little Tokyo protest to end all family separation and detention centers.


If you're in Los Angeles, join concerned community members in Little Tokyo this Thursday evening to protest the White House's plans to use Fort Sill in Oklahoma as a detention center for immigrant children and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention practices in general.

Organizers are demanding an end to the inhumane conditions at ICE facilities, an end to family separation policies, and for compassion and humanitarianism toward all people. All who share concern about these issues are invited to participate.

It's happening June 27 at 7:00pm on the plaza of the Japanese American National Museum.

Of course the Trump Administration is holding migrant children at a former Japanese American incarceration site

Fort Sill has been selected "as a temporary emergency influx shelter" to detain 1,400 children.



History repeats itself. After running out of room at government shelters, the Trump Administration has opted to use an Army base in Oklahoma to hold growing numbers of immigrant children in its custody -- at the same site where innocent Japanese American citizens were detained during World War II.

Fort Sill, an 150-year-old installation once used as an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, has been selected "as a temporary emergency influx shelter" to detain 1,400 children until they can be given to an adult relative, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

More here: Trump Administration to Hold Migrant Children at Base That Served as WWII Japanese Internment Camp

Don't miss the World Premiere of 'Tales of Clamor'

February 1- March 3 at Aratani Theatre Black Box



If you're in Los Angeles, you don't want to miss the world premiere of Tales of Clamor presented by the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, in association with Nikkei Civil Rights and Redress.

Tales of Clamor by PULLproject Ensemble is a 7-person play centering around two artists debating cultural versus institutionalized silence. Utilizing ensemble storytelling, circus arts and archival footage from the 1981 Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians hearings, this piece explores what it means to show up for each other, speak out, and generate the collective clamor necessary for social change.

The show runs February 1 - March 3 at the Aratani Theatre Black Box in Little Tokyo.

Researcher and activist Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga dies at 93

Former incarceree uncovered instrumental evidence for the Japanese American redress movement.



Activist and researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, best known as a hero of the Japanese American redress campaign that culminated in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, died last week. She was 93.

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by President Ronald Reagan, granted reparations, and perhaps more importantly, an official apology to Japanese Americans who had been removed from the West Coast and incarcerated without trial by the United States government during World War II.

Herzig-Yoshinaga was a high school senior when she was incarcerated with her family at the Manzanar Relocation Center. After the war, while living in New York in the 1960s, she became involved with Asian Americans for Action, and engaged in a variety of political protests and demonstrations, including efforts to end the war in Vietnam and demonstrations against nuclear research.

After to moving to Washington DC in 1978, Herzig-Yoshinaga began looking through the information on the wartime exclusion and incarceration, which was publicly accessible in the National Archives. Over several years, she retrieved and cataloged thousands and significant documents -- including a key piece of "buried" evidence that would become instrumental in the movement for redress.

Season two of 'The Terror' will be set during Japanese American internment

AMC's horror drama is now an anthology series.



AMC has renewed the horror drama series The Terror for a second season, with some significant changes: it's now officially an anthology series, and the next iteration will switch up its historical setting to center on the Japanese American community during World War II.

'The Terror' Renewed For Season 2 By AMC Set During World War II

Season one of The Terror was inspired by the true story of a doomed Arctic expedition from the mid 19th century. But season two "will be set during World War II and center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific," according to a press release from AMC.

Drunk Randall Park tells the Drunk History of Frank Emi

Starring Aaron Takahashi as Frank Emi.



The premise of Drunk History is fairly simple. People go on camera and narrate the story of a noteworthy historical figure or moment... while drunk. Then they present a re-enactment of this alcohol-fueled account.

On the latest episode of the hit Comedy Central series, Fresh Off The Boat star Randall Park gets liquored up and tells the story of civil rights activist Frank Emi, played here by Aaron Takahashi. Incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II, Emi protested against the drafting of Japanese Americans into military service.

An important part of the story of Japanese American incarceration, told under the influence, burps and all.

Interior Secretary's response to hearing about Japanese American incarceration: "Konnichiwa"

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa was not amused.



"Konnichiwa." Wow. So you know one fucking Japanese word. Slow clap.

It's one thing -- annoying as shit -- when some fool tries to bust one of these on you in a bar or on the street. (Asian folk, raise your hand if you've been on the receiving end of an unsolicited "konnichiwa" or a "ni hao.") It's wholly inappropriate when it happens during a hearing of the United States Congress.

But that's what happened Thursday during a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), who is Japanese American, was pressing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about re-funding a National Park Service program that offers grants towards the preservation of incarceration sites where Japanese Americans -- including Hanabusa's grandparents -- were held during World War II.

"Are you committed to continue to grant programs that are identified, I believe, as the Japanese American Confinement Sites grants program which were funded in 2017? Will we see them funded again in 2018?" Hanabusa asked.

Zinke's response: "Oh, konnichiwa."

I imagine Rep. Hanabusa had to summon every molecule of her being to suppress an eye roll.

See George Takei in the Los Angeles premiere of Allegiance

February 21 - April 1 at JACCC's Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo.



Los Angeles! Don't miss your chance to see the Broadway musical Allegiance, now on stage in Little Tokyo.

Inspired by true events, and starring George Takei, Allegiance is the story of the Kimura family, whose lives are upended when they and 120,000 other Japanese Americans are forced to leave their homes following the events of Pearl Harbor. An uplifting testament to the human spirit, Allegiance follows the Kimuras as they fight between duty and defiance, custom and change, family bonds and forbidden loves.

Presented by East West Players and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, the Los Angeles premiere of Allegiance is running now through April 1 at JACCC's Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo, with the Opening Night performance and reception on February 28.

New podcast chronicles Japanese American incarceration

'Order 9066' from American Public Media and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.



Hear the voices and stories of Japanese American Incarceration from the real people who endured it.

Order 9066 is a landmark new podcast series that chronicles the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II. Through vivid, first-person accounts from those who lived through it, the series explores how this shocking violation of American democracy came to pass, and its legacy in the present.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 just months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Roughly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes and sent to one of ten "relocation centers," imprisoned behind barbed wire during the war. Two-thirds of them were American citizens.

Produced by American Public Media in collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the series launched on February 19 -- the anniversary of the executive order's signing.

Listen to the trailer:

When taiko meets big band and swing dancing!

Watch a performance from San Jose Taiko's Swingposium: Big Band Music and Dance from Camp.



What do you get when you mix taiko with big band and swing dancing? A super-fun time, as evidenced by this awesome performance from San Jose Taiko's Swingposium: Big Band Music and Dance from Camp, an immersive show performed and produced last year with Epic Immersive and Wesley Jazz Ensemble.

The piece, "Singing in the Present," is a mash-up of San Jose Taiko's signature song, "Gendai ni Ikiru (Living in the Present)" and Benny Goodman's swing classic, "Sing Sing Sing." And it looks like it was a blast.

When art from internment camps falls into the right hands

"Contested Histories: Art and Artifacts from the Allen Hendershott Eaton Collection" goes on view.



From the Los Angeles Times: A collection of artworks and other artifacts from Japanese American internment camps made headlines in spring 2015 when protesters successfully steered these pieces of American history away from the auction block, where they could have fallen into private hands. The protesters' goal: Put the pieces on public exhibition instead.

Mission accomplished. On Sunday, every item in the collection (or digital representations of them) will go on view at the Japanese American National Museum’s Hirasaki National Resource Center in Los Angeles. Titled "Contested Histories: Art and Artifacts from the Allen Hendershott Eaton Collection," the exhibition includes more than 450 paintings, photographs, sculptures, pieces of jewelry and other objects made by hand in camps where about 120,000 people of Japanese descent were incarcerated during World War II.

More here: Contested art and artifacts from Japanese American internment camps go on view

This Is Who The FBI Came For After Pearl Harbor

Remember the lives lost and the lives forever changed.



Today, December 7, marks the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hours following the attack, the FBI began rounding up and detaining leaders in the Japanese American community from their homes without due process of law. Filmmaker Tad Nakamura's grandfather was one of those taken.

This one-minute video for the Nikkei Democracy Project, made with documentary footage from Something Strong Within (by Tad's parents, Bob Nakamura and Karen Ishizuka), is not only a reminder of lives lost in the attack, but the lives forever changed by fear and bigotry.