Tricycle Talks The Afterlife of Japanese American Wartime Incarceration
9 snips
Jan 14, 2026 
Brandon Shimoda, a poet and professor at Colorado College, dives deep into the legacy of Japanese American wartime incarceration. He shares his personal journey of discovering hidden family histories, sparked by a scene from The Karate Kid. The discussion explores how to memorialize ongoing injustices and reflects on the importance of storytelling from survivors. Shimoda also contemplates the connections between past and present oppressions, emphasizing poetry's role in healing and remembrance. He reads an excerpt from his poignant work.
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Discovery Through Fragments
- Brandon Shimoda discovered his family's incarceration history in fragments and only clarified it through research and writing.
- Writing became the primary method he used to understand withheld family stories and broader Japanese American history.
A Movie Scene Triggered Awareness
- Brandon first glimpsed incarceration history through a scene in The Karate Kid about Mr. Miyagi's past.
- That uncomfortable scene stuck with him and later signaled deeper familial and cultural trauma.
Memorializing Ongoing Harm
- Brandon frames memorialization via Christina Sharpe's question: how to memorialize an event that is still ongoing.
- He uses that question to probe the limits and purposes of memorials for ongoing state violence.
