Nikkei Wartime Experiences 2026 | UCLA’s Aratani CARE Sponsors film event “When You’re Smiling: Screenings on the Intergenerational Impact of Incarceration” at Japanese American National Museum Saturday, Sep. 26, 10AM -4PM
The George and Sakaye Aratani CARE Award, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and Keiro sponsor When You’re Smiling: Screenings on the Intergenerational Impact of Incarceration at Democracy Center of the Japanese American National Museum, 100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012, on Saturday, September 26, 2026 from 10:00 a.m. though 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 General, $5 Students & Senior, free for JANM Members.
This special daylong program examines Sansei intergenerational trauma and the enduring effects of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. Featuring film screenings and a panel discussion, this program explores how the incarceration experience affected Nisei survivors and the subsequent generation of Sansei.
Emmy Award–winning journalist Wendy Tokuda will host and moderate the program, which includes documentary films by Janice Tanaka, Janice D. Tanaka, and Satsuki Ina.
The screenings will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers, who will be joined by Ron Wakabayashi and the Co-Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, Peter Gee. Together they will explore how the incarceration experience affected Nisei survivors and the subsequent generation of Sansei.
Due to the heavy nature of the topic, registered attendees will also receive advance access to all four films, allowing them to view the material at their own pace before the program.
Tickets: https://9644p.blackbaudhosting.com/9644p/tickets?tab=2&txobjid=2c22cd00-d2c0-402d-8c6d-ebf9edbfdeca
SCREENING SCHEDULE
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Children of the Camps (Satsuki Ina)
Poignant stories of six Japanese Americans who were interned as children in US concentration camps during World War II.
un time: 60 minutes
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Who’s Going to Pay for these Donuts Anyway (Janice Tanaka)
Recollections of a father’s institutionalization after writing letters to the President questioning the constitutionality of incarceration.
Run time: 60 minutes
1:15 PM – 1:30 PM | Memories from the Department of Amnesia (Janice Tanaka)
An elegy to a mother whose attempts for balance and security were consistently disrupted by social and political forces beyond her control.
Run time: 15 minutes
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM | When You’re Smiling: The Deadly Legacy of Internment (Janice D. Tanaka)
A documentary that remembers the thirty-one Sansei suicide deaths in 1970 and considers the pressures, silence, and “model minority” expectations shaping Japanese American life in Los Angeles at the time.
Run time: 60 minutes
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Panel Discussion
Documentary filmmakers explore how the incarceration experience affected Nisei survivors and the subsequent generation of Sansei.
SPEAKERS’ BIO
Wendy Tokuda
Wendy Tokuda is an award-winning journalist, best known as a primetime anchor in local TV news for almost forty years, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was the first Asian American to anchor weekday primetime newscasts in San Francisco and one of the first journalists to report on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. She has won seven regional Emmy Awards for reporting, and numerous lifetime achievement awards.
Janice Tanaka
Janice Tanaka was incarcerated at Manzanar as a baby. Tanaka later became a pioneering video artist whose work drew on the experiences of her Nisei parents. Who’s Going to Pay for These Donuts, Anyway? recounts her father’s institutionalization after writing letters to the President questioning the constitutionality of incarceration. Memories from the Department of Amnesia is an elegy to her mother whose attempts for balance and security were consistently disrupted by social and political forces beyond her control.
Janice D. Tanaka
Janice D. Tanaka is the event’s producer and a communications specialist, filmmaker and educator who has written and produced several acclaimed documentaries including the award winning When You’re Smiling, the story of the Sansei suicides during the 1970s.
Satsuki Ina
Satsuki Ina is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in community trauma and is the author of The Poet and the Silk Girl. Ina’s film, Children of the Camps, documents a therapeutic gathering of Nisei who were incarcerated as children. Through their testimony and healing process, the film reveals the emotional injuries that many survivors carried for decades.
Ron Wakabayashi
Ron Wakabayashi, former executive director of the Los Angeles City and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commissions, first reported on the Sansei deaths and investigated the circumstances surrounding them.
Peter Gee
Peter Gee is the co-executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) and will share information about support and community resources available through programs like LTSC’s Changing Tides.