Takeshi “Tak” Furumoto is a Japanese American who was born in an incarceration camp, raised in Hiroshima, and fought in the Vietnam War. In the NHK documentary Raised in Hiroshima, Fought in Vietnam, Furumoto travels in search of closure to his complicated past.

About Tak Furumoto

Born in 1944 in Tule Lake War Relocation Center, one of the ten Japanese American incarceration camps established for the mass incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals living on the West Coast, during World War II, Tak Furumoto is the youngest of Sam Kiyoto and Yoshi Furumoto’s five children. Raised in his father’s war-torn hometown in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing, Furumoto’s family returned to the U.S. in 1956, settling in Los Angeles. After Furumoto graduated from UCLA in 1967, he volunteered to enter the Army. Despite the injustices his family endured in the U.S. during WWII, Furumoto valiantly served our country in the Vietnam War, earning a Bronze Star.

A New Jersey resident since 1971, Furumoto and his wife, Carolyn, have run Furumoto Realty in New Jersey, New York City, and Westchester for more than 50 years. They have dedicated their lives to the betterment of the Japanese American community in both New Jersey and New York. They were instrumental in New Jersey’s adoption of Fred T. Korematsu Day in 2023, relentlessly advocating for the state of New Jersey to recognize January 30 as the Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, a day that honors civil rights hero Fred Korematsu, a California native who refused to enter the incarceration camps in 1942.

To learn more about Furumoto and his contributions to our community, please read Karen Kawaguchi’s in-depth article in Discover Nikkei.

On-Air Schedule

NHK World will broadcast Raised in Hiroshima, Fought in Vietnam on the following days:
Friday, March 21 from 8:10 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 22 from 2:10 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. | 8:10 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. | 2:10 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.

NHK World is available in New York at these channels: Spectrum 1279, Optimum 142, FiOS 482, Xfinity 265 and 1157, and OTA channel 58.2 To find the full details of where you can watch the documentary in your area, please visit the NHK World Channel List on NHK’s website.

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Susan McCormac 2/17/25 Susan McCormac 2/17/25

Charlie Chaplin’s Confidante in spotlight off-broadway

Off-Broadway play about Toraichi Kono, Charlie Chaplin’s majordomo and confidante who was arrested for espionage during World War II

My Man Kono

Now through Sunday, March 9

A.R.T./New York Mezzanine Theatre – 502 W. 53rd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)

Admission: $77 | $66 Seniors | $39 Students (prices include fees)

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of My Man Kono, a play by LA-based writer and producer Philip W. Chung directed by Jeff Liu, an Artistic Producer for the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

In the heyday of silent films, Japanese émigré Toraichi Kono, in pursuit of the American Dream, becomes a loyal confidante of film star Charlie Chaplin. But at the dawn of WWII, he is swept up in anti-Japanese hysteria and accused of espionage. Conlan Ledwith portrays the silent screen star with Brian Lee Huynh as his man Kono.

“It’s a fascinating and distinctively American story about a figure from our cultural history we should know better,” writes Zachary Stewart in his review of the biographical off-Broadway production on theatermania.com.

Remembering Executive Order 9066

This Wednesday, February 19 Pan Asian Rep is celebrating the AANHPI community on AANHPI Affinity Night/Day of Remembrance. The evening is in recognition of the 83rd anniversary of Executive Order 9066, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s directive issued February 19, 1942, authorizing the forced relocation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, in remote internment camps. Pan Asian Rep is offering a special discount to theatergoers on February 19. Enter code AANHPI at checkout for $55 tickets.

To purchase tickets, please visit panasianrep.org.

Conlan Ledwith (left) as Charlie Chaplin and Brian Lee Huynh as Toraichi Kono in *My Man Kono*. Photo: ©Russ Rowland

Performance Schedule

Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:00 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

The run time is approximately two hours including an intermission.

Susan McCormac 1/14/25 Susan McCormac 1/14/25

Miné Okubo’s Portraits at SEIZAN Gallery NYC

Miné Okubo, Untitled, 1940s from SEIZAN Gallery

Miné Okubo: Portraits

Now through Saturday, March 1

SEIZAN Gallery – 525 W. 26th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Ground Floor

Admission: Free

SEIZAN Gallery is presenting Miné Okubo: Portraits, the gallery's first solo exhibition featuring work by one of the most influential Japanese American artists of the 20th Century. Until March 1, 2025, works by Okubo will be on public display, some for the first time, including eleven portraits completed in the late 1940s. Okubo achieved early success as an artist and continued to be extraordinarily prolific throughout her life until her death in 2001. She is most renowned for Citizen 13660, a groundbreaking memoir that combines visual art and narrative to record her experience living in Japanese American internment camps during World War II.

About Miné Okubo

Born in Riverside, California, in 1912, Miné Okubo was a nisei, or second-generation Japanese American. After earning an MFA in art and anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, she was awarded the prestigious Bertha Taussig Fellowship to study in Paris under Fernand Léger. When World War II broke out, Okubo returned to the United States in 1939 on the last ship from Europe. Back in California, she contributed to mural projects under the Federal Art Project and curated exhibitions.

From 1942 to 1944, Okubo was detained at the Tanforan Relocation Center in San Bruno, California, and at the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. While in these camps, she created more than 2,000 drawings using charcoal, watercolor, pen, and ink. During this time she taught art to others in the incarcerated population, alongside Chiura Obata and other notable artists. Published in 1946, Citizen 13660 includes nearly 200 illustrations documenting daily life in the camps. It received the American Book Award in 1984.

Miné Okubo, *Untitled*, 1940s from SEIZAN Gallery

Life and Work in New York City

After her release from Topaz in 1944, Okubo relocated to New York City, where she went on to have a successful career as a commercial illustrator for prestigious publications such as The New York Times, LIFE, and Fortune while continuing her painting practice. Her debut assignment was illustrating the magazine's April 1944 "Japan" issue. Portraits—especially of women and children—remained a central focus of her work. In "Personal Statement" she wrote "From the beginning, my work has been rooted in a concern for the humanities."

The eleven portraits featured in this exhibition were created in the late 1940s, just a few years after Okubo’s release from the camps. These bold, powerful works share stylistic connections with her earlier charcoal drawings from the internment period, which are also displayed in the gallery. While her camp drawings often convey the despair and trauma of the incarcerated, the later portraits—rendered in colorful pastel—capture energy, strength, and compassion. The anonymous figures exude vitality and humanity, celebrating everyday life and signal an early transition to Okubo's iconic, color-rich style.

Recognition and Legacy

Her contributions have been recognized in numerous ways. In 1965, CBS-TV featured her in the documentary Nisei: The Pride and the Shame. In 1972, her first retrospective was held at the Oakland Museum. In 1981, Okubo testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), advocating for the inclusion of internment history in educational curricula.

Okubo’s works are now archived at the Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties at Riverside Community College District and featured in prominent museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Oakland Museum. Her legacy endures in exhibitions like The View from Within curated by Karin Higa in 1992 at the Japanese American National Museum as well as on-going group exhibition Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo at the Smithsonian American Art Museum curated by ShiPu Wang through August 17, 2025.

SEIZAN Gallery

Located in Chelsea, SEIZAN’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. and Sunday and Monday by appointment. For more information, please visit SEIZAN Gallery’s website.

Local Hero to Be Featured in NHK Documentary