TADAIMA! OPENING CEREMONY — AUDIO DESCRIPTION SCRIPT Audio Description Spoken Script VIOLIN TSUNAMI A music video introduces the Opening Ceremony of Tadaima! Community Virtual Pilgrimage 2020. It comprises a montage of historic images that covers the history of Japanese Americans from early immigration in the 1860s to the World War II incarceration. Text appears on screen: In 1853, the U.S. Navy forced Japan to end 250 years of isolationist policy. This catalyzed an era of Japanese imperialism and migration. A painting depicts the arrival of American sailors on the shores of Japan. This is followed by a montage of historic black-and-white photos. A ship called the Africa Maru, and several portraits of Japanese immigrants: a man wearing a bow tie, women wearing kimonos, and a mother with her child. A postcard shows three people in a whimsical flying contraption flying over Portland, Oregon. A woman grows flowers in Hawaii. A miner pans for gold on the US mainland. Two women hoe a strawberry field. A couple pose with their baby on their farm. Hunters find a seal in Alaska. A fisherman collects oysters. Two men tend a field in front of a greenhouse. A group sits by a lake for a picnic. Women and children relax at a river. Loggers sit on a fallen tree. A women’s society. A jewelry store. A family’s new car. A baseball team. A cafe. A parade. A bookstore. A delivery wagon. A laundromat. A family of three generations. A boy serenades a girl in a flapper’s dress. A five and dime store. A sign tells Japs to keep moving. Don’t let the sun set on you here. Two men hold up large fish. A woman smiles with her daughters. A shop owner stands in front of his store. More signs say, Japs keep moving. This is a white man’s neighborhood. Japs or Hindus not wanted. A large family sits on a farm. A middle-aged couple wear their finest clothes. Staff operate a general store. People shopping in Japantown. A judo team with a trophy. A door painted with the words, Jap keep out you rats. Women working in a greenhouse. Young men sailing to Alaska for work. Captured on film, a plane approaches Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona is destroyed. Newspaper headlines predict exclusion. A storefront sign says, I AM AMERICAN. Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry are taped to a wall. Children of all ethnicities pledge to the American flag. Businesses advertise Closing Out sales. Families try to sell furniture. People board up their storefronts, their houses, and barns. An army truck takes a family from their home. People carry luggage down a dirt road, eventually joining thousands of others at a train station. A World War I veteran arrives in uniform. A toddler watches an armed soldier. A woman wears a tag with her identification number. Families board the train. A man says goodbye to his friends. A woman cries and people lean out of the windows for one last look. They are brought to a desert with barbed wire fences. People carry their belongings through rows of military barracks. An aerial view shows the camp is completely isolated. Surrounded by guard towers, a man carries his grandson on his shoulders. The buildings are mostly empty. A teenager stares into the distance. A young woman and a corporal wearing his Army uniform look into the camera. Workers harvest potatoes in a field. Men cut away sagebrush in the desert. Women make camouflage nets. A hand reaches out to cut the barbed wire fence. In the present day, a drone flies over what is left of each of camps: - the desert of Gila River - the canal at Minidoka - crumbling barracks at Poston - a walking trail at Amache - the visitor center at Heart Mountain - a single chimney stack in a field at Jerome - Castle Rock at Tule Lake - a visitor center beneath the mountains at Manzanar - the old cemetery of Rohwer - and the sagebrush of Topaz. The credits roll over an animation of military barracks. Glowing with warm light, the barracks rise up and fly off into a starry night sky. This video was edited by Keiko Ozaki. Animation provided by by Tandem Media and Brain Box. Music is Violin Tsunami by Kishi Bashi. A title card reads: Tadaima! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage. Opening Ceremony, June 13th, 2020. WELCOME ADDRESS by David Ono & Tamlyn Tomita Filmmaker and news anchor David Ono stands beside actress Tamlyn Tomita inside the Japanese American National Museum. Behind them is a historic barrack from one of the camps. Hello! I’m David Ono. And I’m Tamlyn Tomita. Welcome to Tadaima! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage in a time of social distancing. We’re here at the Japanese American National Museum to introduce to you a summer-long celebration. Tadaima! is a collaborative effort to bring together the Nikkei community, so we can honor our history, engage in cultural activities, and find connection. But before we get to that, it is worth mentioning the protests that we have all been witnesses or participants of in recent weeks. A panoramic photo shows thousands of people crowded around the State Capitol in Boise for a vigil. Then more photos show protestors of all races wearing protective face masks and holding signs to honor George Floyd. The signs say: Black Lives Matter. Hands up, don’t shoot. No Justice, No Peace. A black woman holds a sign asking, Am I next? Millions of people across the country are working hard to dismantle 400 years of systemic racial trauma and murder. The Black Lives Matter movement is leading a radical change in policing, community investment, and anti-racism education. Emotionally, it’s a lot to process: we are grieving for our black sisters and brothers, while confronting biases in our institutions and in ourselves. However, I think most of us are cautiously optimistic. What makes these reform efforts unique is that they are set against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Why Are We Here? As you all know, the pandemic of the novel coronavirus has drastically changed the way we live our daily lives and interact with one another. This means staying home whenever possible, taking precautions when in public, and avoiding crowds. Unfortunately, this also means canceling events, including annual pilgrimages to the World War II incarceration sites. A sign posted on a door says a National Park visitor center is Closed. We return to David and Tamlyn. We want to thank you for virtually joining us today, as we commemorate the struggles of the Japanese American community and its resilience during a dark period in our nation’s history. Historic black and white footage shows Heart Mountain, a barbed wire fence, and a dust storm sweeping through barracks while a person runs for shelter. Historic color footage shows Castle Rock, the desert, and barracks at Tule Lake. Defining Nikkei Incarceration In February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This authorized the US Army to exclude all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. Allowed to bring only what they could carry, people were forced to vacate their homes and abandon their lives as they were removed to some of the most desolate places in the country. In total, over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were imprisoned without due process of law. We return to David. Japanese Americans weren’t the only ones. Thousands of Japanese Canadians and Japanese Australians were incarcerated in their respective countries, and Japanese Mexicans were ordered to leave their homes on the Pacific Coast. Nikkei civilians from a dozen Latin American countries were even deported to the United States and held in camps run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The system of confinement facilities in the U.S. was vast, and more complicated than most people realize. For this Virtual Pilgrimage, we hope to expand the traditional narrative. Scholars, artists, educators, and representatives from many different contingents of the community have come together to provide a fuller understanding of Japanese American history. What To Expect from TADAIMA! Tamlyn replaces David. Rather than ten separate pilgrimages for each of the camps, Tadaima! will combine many of the unique traditions from each site, along with new content that is spread across nine themed weeks. Banners appear on screen to represent each week of the virtual pilgrimage. The theme of Week #1 is Immigration and Settlement, June 14th to June 20th. Week #2 is Pre-War and Forced Removal, June 21st to June 27th. Week #3 is Sites of Incarceration, June 28th to July 4th. Week #4 is A Question of Loyalty, July 5th to July 11th. The theme of Week #5 is, What is Citizenship? July 12th to July 18th. Week #6 is Resettlement, July 19th to July 25th. Week #7 is Nikkei Incarceration Abroad, July 26th to August 1st. Week #8 is The End of War to Redress, August 2nd to August 8th. Week #9 is Reconciliation and Identity, August 9th to August 15th. Photos show a discussion panel, a museum exhibit, and a black and white photo of a garden in camp. Then we return to Tamlyn. The Virtual Pilgrimage will feature pre-recorded and live-streamed content, as well as opportunities to engage with presenters. There will be online exhibits, workshops, performances, lectures, film screenings, and more--so we can all learn, share stories, and build community from the safety of our homes. As an online event, Tadaima! poses a unique opportunity to connect not only the Japanese American community, but the global Nikkei community.