FREE
Join Duncan Ryuken Williams and Emily Anderson, curators of the upcoming exhibition, Sutra and Bible: Faith and the Japanese American World War II Incarceration, for a virtual preview of many never-before-seen artifacts that tell the stories of how Japanese Americans drew on their faith to survive forced removal and incarceration at a time when their race and religion were seen as threats to national security.
Sutra and Bible brings the stories of those faced with sudden, heartbreaking exile to light through an array of astonishing artifacts: from the prayer books and religious scrolls they carried with them into camp, to the altars, prayer beads, embroidered senninbari prayer belts, and memorials they handcrafted through the bleakest times, to keep their spirits alive.
This program is the launch event for the exhibition Sutra and Bible: Faith and the Japanese American World War II Incarceration opening on February 26, 2022 at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). The exhibition is co-presented by JANM and the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture.
Image: Heart Mountain sutra stones; gift of Les and Nora Bovee (94.158.1). End pages of the first Kitaji Bible, completed by Captain Masuo Kitaji at Poston concentration camp, 1944; courtesy of Kitaji Family/Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
