Resilience in One Chicago Family
The power of tanka poetry in overcoming adversity and shaping identity
Doors open at 1:30 pm | Program runs 2-4 pm CST (Reception to follow) Registration required. tinyurl.com/chidor25
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Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark Street
Chicago’s Day of Remembrance 2025 “Resilience in One Chicago Family” will take place on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at the Chicago History Museum from 2-4 pm. The program will feature a panel discussion on the tanka poetry of Issei (first-generation immigrant) poets Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto. The new book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024), presents a rare English translation of Issei tanka poetry, offering a perspective formerly only available in the Japanese language. Editor Nancy Matsumoto (granddaughter of Tomiko and Ryokuyō), translators Mariko Aratani and Kyoko Miyabe, and Japanese literature scholar Eri F. Yasuhara will present the family’s story, explain tanka poetry, and discuss the poems and their significance in both documenting the Matsumoto’s experiences and the evolution of their self-identity.
Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 forced Mr. and Mrs. Matsumoto to join 120,000 other people of Japanese ancestry imprisoned in a U.S. government incarceration camp during WWII. Every year, the Japanese American community in Chicago comes together to commemorate E.O. 9066 as a reminder of the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis and the importance of protecting the rights and freedoms of all.
In 1945, the Matsumoto family relocated to Chicago along with a wave of other freed prisoners, swelling the Japanese population of Chicago from less than 400 to more than 40,000 people. By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024) traces the Matsumoto family’s journey from forced removal and the barracks of Heart Mountain, Wyoming to its post-war life in the cold and unfamiliar city of Chicago. The talk will explore what tanka poetry is, how this art form and other Japanese cultural traditions enabled the Matsumotos to endure and even thrive during the challenging and post-war resettlement period, and the evolution of their self-identities during this tumultuous eighteen-year chapter of Japanese American history.
Tanka (translated as “short poem”) is one of the oldest forms of Japanese poetry, originating in the seventh century. This form consists of five lines with a specific syllable count of 5-7-5-7-7 and can cover a wide range of topics, which made it a preferred verse form not only in the Japanese Imperial Court, where nobles competed in tanka contests, but for women and men engaged in courtship.This made tanka a favored verse form for its ability to capture complex emotions and intimate experiences, offering poets a versatile outlet to express everything from nature and love to historical events and personal reflections. The Matsumotos embraced this culturally unique form of tanka poetry to document their experiences before and after World War II, using it as a means to overcome adversity and shape their new identity in Chicago.
The program will conclude with a Q&A followed by a meet and greet with the participants at a reception following the program featuring booths by sponsors and community organizations.
This event is sponsored by the Chicago Japanese American Council, Chicago Japanese American Historical Society, Japanese American Citizens League – Chicago Chapter, Japanese American Service Committee, and Japanese Mutual Aid Society of Chicago.
The program is free and open to the public. Advanced registration is required. Registration required. tinyurl.com/chidor25