Overview

“Using Art to Tell the Story”

In 1942 during World War II, 125,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated through President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066.  About two thirds of these were American citizens. The resulting upheaval, polarization, and generational suffering of the Japanese American community continues to this day.

There are historical, films, plays, books, documentaries, and other resources available through many different outlets. While keeping these resources alive is essential, there are very few stories of the Incarceration that focus on the psychological and emotional impact.

Both Eyes Open (BEO) is a chamber opera by composer Max Giteck Duykers and librettist Philip Kan Gotanda, which premiered in San Francisco in 2022, and continues to be performed and garner acclaim. Both Eyes Open focusses on a central character who lost his livelihood, his family, and his faith in his country, and the opera suggests paths toward healing. It is a fictional story based on true events. 

We have compiled these “Educator Modules”, which include clips from the opera with historical annotations, bullet points for discussion, and some classroom activities. We hope this BEO Educator project may be useful to support classroom discussion about the emotional and psychological impact of the Incarceration, and to inspire other creative projects which use art to tell the story.

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Both Eyes Open explores the scarring that Japanese Americans experienced during World War II and suggests paths toward healing. Set in Stockton, California, the story focuses on a Japanese American landowner named Jinzo Matsumoto, who, with his wife Catherine, are incarcerated in a camp in Rohwer, Arkansas in 1942. Complete video and synopsis here. Before leaving their farm, they bury a “Daruma Doll” on their land. According to tradition, these papier-mâché idols are given to people when they embark on a challenging endeavor or make a serious promise. Only one eye is painted on the doll's face to symbolize the initial commitment to the challenge. If success comes, the doll receives its second eye and is burned ceremonially to release its spirit.

The war ends, a new Executive Order is issued, and Jinzo is free to return to his former life; he goes home to Stockton to see his old farm. Jinzo is broken. He finds himself at the railroad tracks and at the precipice of an important decision.

The Daruma Doll and the ghost of Catherine appear to guide him to a place of higher understanding. Jinzo’s world freezes. 

Silence, emptiness. Ma. 

We leave reality and enter the meta world of Daruma’s Bigger Mind, able to understand the entire trajectory of Jinzo’s life as a living history. We see the tumultuous world of today as a continuum of the “rich, rotting soil of fertile injustice.” 

 “What will it grow?”

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This project was funded in part by a generous grant from the California State Library Civil Liberties Program, which “funds projects that educate Californians about the Japanese American experience during World War II often in conjunction with parallel civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices.” More information here.