As part of a special free public program at the Queen Mary, Thursday evening, August 15th, during Haiku North America, filmmaker and professor emeritus of California State University, Sacramento, Satsuki Ina will present her award-winning documentary film, From a Silk Cocoon: a Japanese American Renunciation Story.
The discovery of a small metal box leads to the uncovering of a family story, shrouded in silence for more than 60 years. Woven through their censored letters, diary entries, and haiku poetry, is the story of a young Japanese American couple whose dreams are shattered when, months after their wedding, they find themselves held captive, first in race track horse stables and later, in tar paper barracks.
It is the story of Ina's own parents, Shizuko and Itaru, who find themselves abandoned by America, the country of their birth, as they endured four years of life behind barbed wires in American concentration camps during WWII. Itaru's haiku poetry is woven subtly through the film, producing the effect of a cinematic haibun.
Before the screening, Ina will share and read the haiku poetry of her father, who wrote some of his most sublime and evocative haiku during and about his WWII camp experience. Ina will talk about the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during the war and the poetry that was written from behind barbed wire.
A number of Itaru Ina’s poems have been translated by Hisako Ifshin and Leza Lowitz in Modern Haiku, including
the following:
kanshi no me yurumu shasô ni tsuki suzushi
The guard’s gaze
softens at the train window--
brisk moon.
(Ifshin & Lowitz, tr. Modern Haiku 34.2 2003)
Wata no hana okata wata ni natsu fukaki
Cotton flowers
have almost grown into cotton--
summer deepens
(Ifshin & Lowitz, tr. Modern Haiku 34.3 2003)
The discovery of a small metal box leads to the uncovering of a family story, shrouded in silence for more than 60 years. Woven through their censored letters, diary entries, and haiku poetry, is the story of a young Japanese American couple whose dreams are shattered when, months after their wedding, they find themselves held captive, first in race track horse stables and later, in tar paper barracks.
It is the story of Ina's own parents, Shizuko and Itaru, who find themselves abandoned by America, the country of their birth, as they endured four years of life behind barbed wires in American concentration camps during WWII. Itaru's haiku poetry is woven subtly through the film, producing the effect of a cinematic haibun.
Before the screening, Ina will share and read the haiku poetry of her father, who wrote some of his most sublime and evocative haiku during and about his WWII camp experience. Ina will talk about the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during the war and the poetry that was written from behind barbed wire.
A number of Itaru Ina’s poems have been translated by Hisako Ifshin and Leza Lowitz in Modern Haiku, including
the following:
kanshi no me yurumu shasô ni tsuki suzushi
The guard’s gaze
softens at the train window--
brisk moon.
(Ifshin & Lowitz, tr. Modern Haiku 34.2 2003)
Wata no hana okata wata ni natsu fukaki
Cotton flowers
have almost grown into cotton--
summer deepens
(Ifshin & Lowitz, tr. Modern Haiku 34.3 2003)
Satsuki Ina was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, one of the ten American concentration camps during World War II. Her father, Itaru Ina was separated from the family and interned in Bismarck, North Dakota, a Department of Justice camp for enemy aliens after he renounced his American citizenship. Dr. Ina is currently a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in the treatment of childhood trauma. She serves as a consultant to educational, cultural and religious communities regarding sexual abuse, the psychological impact of racism, and cross-cultural communications. With the production team of Hesono O Productions, she has produced, written, and directed two documentary films, Children of the Camps (2000) and From A Silk Cocoon (2007). Both films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and From A Silk Cocoon was awarded the Northern California Emmy for outstanding historical and cultural program. Dr. Ina is currently working on the book version of From A Silk Cocoon, titled, The Silk Girl and the Poet.
Supported in part by Arts Council for Long Beach and the City of Long Beach.
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