Tule Lake Pilgrimage
July 5 – 8, 2024

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By Ginny Yamamoto Syphax
From Tule Lake Pilgrimage Facebook Post

This was my first year attending the Tule Lake pilgrimage. My mother’s family was incarcerated at TL. Mom never wanted to go back. Mom passed last year 8/18/23. So I asked my 98 & 1/2 yr. old father (Mits Yamamoto) if he wanted to go and he said “let’s go!” But looking back at a memory I have of Mom when I asked if her family were no-no’s (mind you Mom was pretty quiet), she yelled at me, “Nooooo, we weren’t!” I knew after that incident it was best for me to keep my mouth shut and walk away.

After attending the 2024 TL pilgrimage, I learned more than I could have imagined. But listening to some other survivors & descendants, maybe Mom never wanted to go back because of the shame . I guess I’ll never know.

Thank you TL committee, presenters, volunteers, bus monitors, docents, medical staff, and OIT staff for an enlightening, moving and learning experience. A memory I will forever have in my heart, sole and body. It’s because of everyone involved, thank YOU!

Thank you to everyone who met Dad and talked with him. He loves telling his stories (we are so grateful and lucky he does), thank YOU for listening and making his experience the best we could have hoped for.

If you haven’t gone, you need to.

(Picture: Dad made over 400 of these wood carvings, EO 9066 for each attendee. We must never forget.)

At the closing ceremony, guitarist Rob Buscher, sang “Don’t Fence Me In.” My Mom sang us that song in the ER, 4 days before she passed. I think it was her way saying, “I’m with Dad & you at this pilgrimage.”

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Videos by Kenny Ina
Berkeley Buddhist Temple

Special Screening – “KINTSUKUROI” – Saturday, October 12, 2024

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Please help us spread the word about a special screening of the movie, Kintsukuroi, to be held at the Buddhist Church of Sacramento, 2401 Riverside Boulevard, Sacramento, on Saturday, October 12, 2024.   
 
The Buddhist Church of Sacramento is pleased to partner with Ikeibi Film Company to bring a special screening of KINTSUKUROI to our local community in celebration of the Buddhist Church of Sacramento’s 125th Anniversary on Saturday, October 12, 2024 at 1:00 PM.
 
The first Sacramento showing at the Sophia on June 30, 2024, sold out!  Tickets are on sale now — $25 (general admission), $20 (students and seniors 65+), with special packages also available. 

To purchase tickets, use the QR code or visit: https://tinyurl.com/Oct12-Movie.

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About the movie: 
 
See trailer.

KINTSUKUROI 

1. the Japanese art of repairing pottery using gold
2. the strength and beauty found in something that has been broken. 
    
   Like every immigrant family, the Itos came to the United States to build a better life. After years of struggle and sacrifice, the dream that was America seemed within their grasp. Then the world changed forever … With a stroke of his pen, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 and effectively destroyed the lives of 120,000 Japanese Americans at the onset of WWII.

KINTSUKUROI follows members of the Ito family from their pre-war life in San Francisco’s Japantown to the concentration camps of the American West to the battlefields of Europe as they struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. The film features Ryan Takemiya, Kealani Kitaura, Ken Takeda, Ron Munekawa, Kiyomi Koide and Chizu Omori.

SCHEDULE
Doors open for check in – noon
KINTSUKUROI screening begins – 1pm 
Q&A follows the film – 3:15
Meet the cast and crew
Runtime: 2 hours and 15 minutes
 
Thank you.
 
Karen Adachi, President
Board of Trustees
Buddhist Church of Sacramento