On-Site: Exhibition Opening: Resilience – A Sansei Sense of Legacy

In 1942, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 9066. The law ordered the forced imprisonment of all Japanese Americans living on the west coast of the United States. In the years following the retraction of EO9066, Japanese American families and individuals were forced to come to terms with lost property, the shame and indignation of incarceration, and the task of re-integration into a society that had expelled them.

Japanese Americans used the phrase shikata ga nai– it cannot be helped – and the word gaman – to persevere and stay silent – to speak to their resilience against the losses they incurred and rippled through the generations that followed.

Join us as we open Illinois Holocaust Museum’s newest special exhibition, Resilience: A Sansei Sense of Legacy, a poignant perspective on the generational impacts of the Japanese American incarceration camps, as seen through the eyes of eight Sansei (third-generation) Japanese Americans artists. Featuring a panel discussion with renowned sculptor and installation artist, Kristine Yuki Aono, whose work is included in Resilience, and Michael Takada, former CEO and current advisor to the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) in Chicago, we will explore the legacy and impact of EO9066 on the Japanese American community locally and nationally, the stories behind the works in the exhibition, and the use of art as a vehicle for transformation and change.  The conversation will be moderated by Arielle Weininger, Chief Curator of Collections and Exhibitions for Illinois Holocaust Museum.

Special performance by Ho Etsu Taiko, Chicago’s premier Taiko drum ensemble.

Free reception begins at 1:30 PM CST.

Reservations required. Free to the public.

Community Partners: Japanese American Service Committee Chicago; Chicago Japanese American Historical Society