The Japanese American Experience of WWII featuring Alton Chung at Storytelling Arts of Indiana

Sponsored by the Estate of Fran Long and the Storytelling Arts of Indiana Endowment

Join storyteller Alton Takiyama-Chung for an evening of stories of the Japanese-American Experience of WWII. There will be a talkback session after the performance.

Ben Kuroki was the only Japanese American allowed to fly in the Pacific during WWII. Having survived 30 missions over Europe and even with a chest full of medals, a white person refused to share a cab with him during the war. Fifty years after the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his incredible war record and his fight against racism.

Sagebrush Santa is about what it may have been like during that first Christmas in the Minidoka Incarceration Camp in 1942. Mako Nakagawa gave me permission to tell her story called ONARA. At seven years old, she and her friends in Camp pondered the difference between Japanese people and White people. TWO LIVES is about Sadaichi Kubota and Tadao “Beanie” Hiyashi. They were friends and members of the 442ndRegimental Combat Team, the all Japanese American unit which fought in Europe in WWII. One of them was killed near the end of the war. Sixty years later, the survivor returned to honor his friend.

About the Artist Alton’s one-man shows are riveting. Humorous and poignant, nostalgic and gripping, these dramatic monologues transport you away to another time and place where you experience a different slice of life, before being brought safely back home. Shows include Asian folk tales, stories and legends from Hawaii, and ghost stories, but he is most known for his stories which portray the Japanese American Experience of WWII. Alton has performed all over the world, including the Performing Arts Center in Singapore, Hipbone Studio in Portland, OR, and the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco.