KINTSUKUROI, East Bay Premiere Screening

Thursday, August 22, 6:30 pm

El Cerrito Performing Arts Center

540 Ashbury Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530, USA

Forced from their homes, farms and businesses, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned simply because of their race. Our new feature-length film KINTSUKUROI follows the Ito family from pre-war San Francisco to the concentration camps of the American West to the battlefields of Europe as it endures one of the most shameful periods in American History.

Please join J-SEI and Ikeibi Films in presenting at 6:30pm August 22 at the El Cerrito Performing Arts Center for the East Bay Premiere of KINTSUKUROI. The film features Ryan Takemiya, Kealani Kitaura, Ken Takeda, Ron Munekawa, Kiyomi Koide, Timothy Hsu, Sarah Lee, David Kiyoshi Tom and Chizu Omori. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew.

Doors open at 5:45pm. Parking is available but spaces are limited but there is plenty of street parking. BART is a 10-minute walk.

Proceeds benefit J-SEI, a community care and cultural organization in the East Bay that provides services, programs and activities for Japanese American seniors. The screening is sponsored in part by the Berkeley JACL.

General Admission: $20

Pre-order DVD: $15

Pre-order Program Booklet: $15

Premiere Package: Includes General Admission Ticket, DVD, Program Booklet at $50

Roots in Okinawa

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024   2-4pm

J-Sei, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville, CA

What does it mean for Japanese Americans to have ancestors from Okinawa? How is it different from the histories and experiences of other Japanese Americans? This workshop is for people with at least one family member/ancestor (e.g., parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc.) from Okinawa, specifically welcoming people of all ages who don’t know much about Japanese or Okinawan cultures, languages, and histories; people of multiple ancestries; and people who identify with multiple marginalized communities (in terms of ability, sexuality, gender, etc.).

Moderated by Jane H. Yamashiro, the goal of this workshop is for participants to have the space to think more critically and deeply about what their Okinawan heritage means to them. Participants will have time to reflect on their backgrounds, ask questions, share thoughts, and learn about the experiences and perspectives of others.

RSVP here.

J-Sei At the Movies (hybrid)

Friday, July 19th, 3:00 pm

This month, we’re coming back to J-Sei to revive for one time only a pre-pandemic tradition: watching and discussing a Japanese movie together at J-Sei. For this very special occasion, it seems fitting for us to get together to celebrate a beloved icon from the world of Japanese entertainment: Misora Hibari. Arguably the greatest star of the postwar period, Hibari did it all — starting as a child prodigy singer in 1945 at age 8, she recorded 1,500 songs and went on to star in more than 150 movies between 1949 and 1981.

Special day and time: Friday, July 19, at 3:00pm
in person and on Zoom

We will be screening a Misora Hibari movie (tba). You can join in person at J-Sei, or virtually via Zoom. We’re starting at an early time (3:00p) to allow for daytime-driving. Snacks and beverages will be provided.

Please RSVP to Jill (jill@j-sei.org) with “July movie” in the subject line — please specify if you will attend “in-person” or “on Zoom”.

We’ll see you at the movies!

 J-Sei Movie Night Bento – not available for July

Support J-Sei At the Movies

Thanks to you, J-Sei At the Movies is in its Seventh Year! We look forward to more creative programming with educational and inspiring Japanese and Japanese American films. We are especially grateful for the up close and personal chats with filmmakers as we learn so much from the exchange.

We love having a growing and enthusiastic audience. We welcome any donations to help us offset costs for Movie Night. Thanks for considering this.

Okinawan Migration to the United States 

Sunday, July 14, 2-4pm PT – in-person and online

Okinawans have been migrating to the United States for over 100 years. They have come in two major waves – before World War II and after World War II. What have been the circumstances for their leaving Okinawa and coming to the United States? How about indirect migration, where Okinawans migrated to another country before coming to the U.S.? How is “Okinawan” migration different from “Japanese” migration to the U.S.? What questions do we have about this migration and can we find answers to them? This informal discussion won’t provide all the answers, but will create a space to talk about Okinawan migration history. Moderated by Jane H. Yamashiro, this gathering will include a brief historical overview of Okinawan migration to the U.S., as well as chances to discuss family histories of migration from Okinawa. This event is co-sponsored by J-Sei and the Northern California Okinawan Kenjin Kai.

RSVP for in-person or online,

Jane H. Yamashiro is a sociologist whose comparative and transnational work on race and ethnicity, culture, globalization, migration, diaspora, and identity sits at the intersection of Asian American and Asian Studies. She has previously been a Visiting Scholar at USC’s Center for Japanese Religions and Culture and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and has taught at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Japan, most recently including Mills College, Loyola Marymount University and Mount Tamalpais College (formerly Patten University at San Quentin). She holds a B.A. from the University of California at San Diego and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. While conducting research in Japan, Dr. Yamashiro has been funded by the East-West Center and the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship, and has been a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo and Sophia University. Dr. Yamashiro’s first book, Redefining Japaneseness: Japanese Americans in the Ancestral Homeland, was published in 2017. She is currently writing a book that examines the varied ways that Okinawans in the continental United States identify and think about their Okinawanness.