NHK World to Broadcast ‘I Too Was a Child of Camp’

Satsuki Ina

“I Too Was a Child of Camp,” a new documentary by NHK World-Japan featuring Satsuki Ina and others Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II, will be broadcast on Aug. 16 and 17.

Ina, a Sansei, was born in 1944 at the Tule Lake camp in Northern California. Her experiences there shaped her career as a trauma therapist. Her extensive clinical records reflect the Japanese Americans’ postwar history.

These days, she finds that migrant children in detention centers in the U.S. are experiencing the same sort of distress that she did. Tune in to learn how her decades of research and outreach help ease the suffering of people and community.

Satsuki Ina and her brother at Tule Lake, where she was born.

You can view the program online at NHK Live, which will stream the program “NHK World Prime” on the following dates and times (PDT):

Friday, Aug. 16, from 6:10 to 7 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 17, from 12:10 to 1 a.m.; 6:10 to 7 a.m.; 12:10 to 1 p.m.

After the last live stream on Saturday, the program will be available on demand 24/7 at NHK Live for several months.

If you have the NHK World on your cable provider, you should be able to view the program on Aug. 16 and/or 17, but check your TV listings to confirm the time.

Also available on demand: “Manzanar Revealed,” “A Vanished Dream: Wartime Story of My Japanese Grandfather,” and “Hearing the Voices of Nagasaki Survivors.”

For more information, visit: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/worldprime/

The Story Behind the Photo

Satsuki Ina provided the following description of this photo, which accompanies NHK’s announcement of the documentary:

“We are at Laredo, a border town in Texas. This photo was taken at the Holding Institute, a Methodist, nonprofit community center in downtown Laredo where mothers and children just released from detention are offered shelter while waiting for their ‘credible fear’ hearings as asylum seekers. Our group, Tsuru for Solidarity in alliance with the Laredo Immigrant Alliance volunteer organization, brought a donation so that a washing machine and dryer could be purchased for families to use.

“We formed a Healing Circle for Change, where migrant mothers (and their children) joined us along with the staff to share our stories. We heard heartbreaking stories of families separated and connections lost, and to our surprise, these women and volunteers, beleaguered by their own trauma, shed  tears for us when we Japanese Americans and Japanese Peruvians shared our stories. We brought paper cranes, candy, and lots of smiles to let the children know that there are people who welcome them and care about them.

“Here we are sitting in the Circle and in the moment with nothing else to share with the precious little girl, I used the Kleenex in my pocket and folded a little flower for her. It was heartwarming beyond belief to see the smile of this innocent child beaming with delight.”