Chapters: Season Five Introduction

This is an introduction to Season Five of Chapters. In this episode we document the year 2025, with context from our past, and we learn moving forward. Our goal with this new series is to explore the word incarceration as it relates to the experience of Japanese Americans following Executive Order 9066. We also want to consider the word incarceration and its effect on communities, families, and individuals through conversations with artists, community leaders, government officials, historians, journalists, lawyers, and nonprofit organizations.

In this episode we highlight conversations with guests from this series, including Teresa Watanabe, a journalist at the Los Angeles Times for over three decades; Tarell Alvin McCraney, award-winning writer, producer, educator, and Artistic Director of the Geffen Playhouse; Kirn Kim, who, at 16 years old, was sentenced to 25 years to life as an adult; Donald K. Tamaki, a member of the pro bono legal team that reopened the landmark Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States; Peggy Nagae, who served as lead counsel on the Coram Nobis case of Min Yasui 40 years after his conviction following Executive Order 9066; Dale Minami, coordinating attorney for the Coram Nobis case for Korematsu, Hirabayashi and Yasui, and lead counsel for Fred Korematsu; Ricardo D. García, Public Defender for Los Angeles County; Abdi Soltani, Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California; Chessie Thacher, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Northern California; Soji Kashiwagi, Executive Director and playwright for the Grateful Crane Ensemble; Tamiko Nimura, co-author of the book, We Hereby Refuse, and author of the upcoming book, A Place for What We Lose, A Daughter's Return to Tule Lake; Kathryn Bannai, lead counsel for Gordon Hirabayashi’s Coram Nobis case which led to his conviction being vacated 40 years later; and Ann Burroughs, President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Chapters is a multi-part series concerning the history and the lessons of civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices carried out against communities or populations—including civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices that are perpetrated on the basis of an individual’s race, national origin, immigration status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

This project was made possible with support from Chapman University and The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library.

Guests: Teresa Watanabe, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Kirn Kim, Donald K. Tamaki, Peggy Nagae, Dale Minami, Ricardo D. García, Abdi Soltani, Chessie Thacher, Soji Kashiwagi, Tamiko Nimura, Kathryn Bannai, and Ann Burroughs
Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels
Produced by: Past Forward
Date recorded: December 16, 2025

Past Forward is providing this podcast as a public service. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Please read our Program and Product Disclaimer for more information.