A lively panel discussion and video screening on Japanese American baseball past and present.

During the 1940s, baseball was the national pastime of the US, including in America’s World War II concentration camps. Japanese Americans created leagues in all ten camps and the games drew huge crowds, with spectators often standing and sitting on bare dirt under the blazing sun. Baseball was a way for Japanese Americans to find a sense of normalcy, uplift their spirits, and claim a connection to American culture.

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The junior class of The Thacher School hears from Susan setting the stage for their visit to the Japanese American National Museum as part of its interdisciplinary unit studying the Japanese American incarceration.

The Malibu Chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) host World War II surviving incarceree June Aoki Berk and Susan in conversation about June’s amazing life and accomplishments.

Join the USC Nikkei Student Union in commemorating the Day of Remembrance with Susan testing their incarceration knowledge.

The Rotary Club of Downtown Los Angeles hosts Susan in a discussion about the heritage of the Japanese American community in Little Tokyo and the enduring considerations of the World War II incarceration.

Susan kicks off the new year with the Shakespeare Club of Pasadena

Susan presents a seminar for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Department of Pediatric Psychology diversity series.

Founded in 1907, St. Mary’s began as a mission to minister to Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles and has been an important institution in the Japanese American community. Susan is honored to be part of the worship services to share how young people today relate to the wartime incarceration experience and to pay tribute to the St. Mary’s heritage of service and compassion that continues today. She’ll be signing books in the coffee hour following the service.

Susan talks with students from St. Mark’s School, visiting from Southborough, Massachusetts at the Japanese American National Museum.

As part of its observance of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Pasadena Public Library presents Susan in a talk that celebrates the Japanese American community in Pasadena. Following the issuance of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, Japanese Americans in Pasadena, along with more than 125,000 other persons of Japanese ancestry, were forcibly removed from the west coast by the US military to desolate remote locations, where the US government imprisoned them for the duration of the war. As they were released from the detention camps at the war's end, they faced such intense opposition to returning to their homes that many Japanese neighborhoods which were vibrant before the war remained erased. Susan pays tribute to the civic leaders in Pasadena who pushed back against the intense prejudice that the Japanese Americans faced, and will discuss how their support paved the way for the Japanese American community to reconstitute in Pasadena and in other parts of Southern California.

Susan signs When Can We Go Back to America? Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II in the Books Kinokuniya booth. Join her at the largest book event of its kind in the country on her home turf, the University of Southern California campus.

Susan speaks with the U.S. history students of The Thacher School as they study the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Susan is at the Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma, WA for its 2023 Day of Remembrance event celebrating the opening of the exhibition Resilience — A Sansei Sense of Legacy. Experience this collection of works by Sansei artists interpreting their families’ incarceration, the museum’s permanent exhibit on the incarceration, and an interactive performance Within the Silence presented by Living Voices.

This event is free, with free admission to the museum on Third Thursdays.

Art: Jerry Takigawa, Citizen’s Indefinite Leave

During World War II, the west coast Japanese Americans lacked the power to overcome politics and prejudice to forestall their imprisonment by the US government. Although their voices were not heard in 1942 when they were ordered into detention, the incarcerees speak over the passage of time about the importance of protecting civil liberties for all. Through readings, music, art, and poetry, descendants and allies of incarcerees bring life to voices featured in Susan’s book. Now more than ever, we must hear, remember, and carry forward their messages.

The program will feature:

• readings from When Can We Go Back to America? by Sansei (third-generation) and Yonsei (fourth-generation) Japanese Americans whose family members were incarcerees and members of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team;

• art from the exhibit “Resilience – A Sansei Sense of Legacy”;

• a performance of “Citizen 13660: Vignettes” for string and clarinet quintet composed by Chad Cannon, based on illustrations from Miné Okubo’s book Citizen 13660; and

• poetry by incarcerees included in the book, presented by performance artist traci kato-kiriyama.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and book signing follows.

Registration will open later this year on the Japanese American National Museum website.

Art: Jerry Takigawa, E.O. 9066

Susan keynotes at the November luncheon of the Town and Gown of USC, a leading philanthropic group that supports the university by contributing student scholarships, making building and campus enhancements, and presenting cultural programs.

Susan takes the main stage at the 2022 APA Convention to give the keynote address on “Repressing and Redressing the WWII Japanese American Incarceration.” She’ll share how the incarcerated west coast Japanese Americans kept their traumatic experiences to themselves for decades after their unjust imprisonment during World War II. She’ll also delve into how today we are seeking to understand the intergenerational consequences of this national tragedy.

Learn more about the American Psychological Association at https://www.apa.org/.

Susan is honored to be part of the program for the 2022 pilgrimage at the Heart Mountain confinement site, where her mother and grandparents were incarcerated during World War II. In this educational session, she joins other authors writing about the Japanese American wartime experience and its enduring consequences: Frank Abe (We Hereby Refuse), Shirley Ann Higuchi (Setsuko’s Secret), Douglas Nelson (Heart Mountain: The History of an American Concentration Camp), and Alden Hayashi (Two Nails, One Love). They’ll have a lively discussion about their inspirations and approaches.

Registration is open until June 15, 2022.

The Japanese American community in Bainbridge Island, Washington, was the first to be forcibly removed as a consequence of Executive Order 9066 in March 1942. Susan will Zoom with the members and friends of the Bainbridge Island community today about family's incarceration experience, her role in securing a government apology and token reparations payments for the incarcerees, and the relevance of this dark episode in our country's history today. To receive the Zoom meeting information, email Ross Boundy at RossBoundy@dwt.com.

Aloha! Susan is in conversation with the community of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Maui. Register on the NVMC website at nvmc.org for the Zoom link.

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Susan discusses her book in a virtual talk presented by the Pasadena Public Library. Register here.

The USC Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA)and the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association present a panel discussing the 1952 landmark California Supreme Court Case Fujii v. California that overturned the California Alien Land Law, the Issei community leader Sei Fujii, and the impact that discriminatory land use and other policies have had on communities of color. Susan joins on this panel Jean Reisz, professor of law and co-director of the USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic; Filmmaker/Publisher Jeffrey Gee Chin (“A Rebel’s Outcry” '16 MFA Cinema), and Sidney Kanazawa (’78 Gould Law), who led the effort for a posthumous law license for Fujii.

The program takes place in Room 130 in the USC Gould Law School building and by Zoom.