Eighty-one years after Japanese-Americans were first removed from their homes and sent to internment camps by the American government, an original play presented by the Seattle Historical Theatre Project about the impact of Japanese incarceration is touring throughout the Greater Puget Sound area, making a stop in Renton.
On Saturday, April 1 at the Renton Library, a crowd gathered to watch an abbreviated version of “Friends Across the Wires”, a play written and directed by Laura Ferri, whose previous play “The Ruins of Memory: Women’s Voices of the Holocaust” also featured at the library in late 2022.
The play followed the friendship between Kiyoko and Peggy from their time as students at Broadway High School in Seattle during WWII through Kiyoko and her family’s incarceration, and beyond.
It begins in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, where Peggy, Kiyoko, her siblings Tarao and Ume and Tarao’s friend, Bill, are dealing with a growing distrust of Japanese-Americans with Kiyoko’s father — or otousan — suddenly getting arrested and a curfew after the government and media denigrating Japanese people living in the U.S., including an excerpt from Lieutenant General John DeWitt, who wrote that “the Japanese race is an enemy race.” As Kiyoko’s brother Tarao laments, “You’ll notice the German or Italian kids don’t have a curfew.”
The play moves through several different locations that include Kiyoko’s home and Broadway High School in Seattle, the temporary internment facility known as “Camp Harmony” at the Puyallup Fairgrounds, a train taking Kiyoko and her family to Idaho and the Minidoka camp in Idaho, where over 13,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during the war.
After Kiyoko and her family are moved to Camp Harmony, Peggy corresponds with her best friend and is even able to make the long trip to visit Kiyoko. Once Kiyoko is forced to make the trip to Minidoka, the two still correspond as much as possible.
In a Q&A after the play, Ferri explained that the play’s two heroines were based on the real-life friendship between Louise Tsuboi Kashino and Patsy McInery Love. “We interviewed these two women and their story was so detailed and amazing,” Ferri said.
Peppered with traditional Japanese songs like “Furosato” and “Takeda” and popular American songs of the time like “Home on the Range” and “Don’t Fence Me In” and patriotic anthems, the play illustrates the conditions and emotions of the time, for both Peggy and Kiyoko. “This is the history of Seattle, of Washington. This story needs to be told,” said Ferri.
Tickets to the “Friends Across the Wires” tour are free because of funding from 4Culture Arts and Heritage and Kip Tokuda Memorial Washington Civil Liberties Public Education, along with other program grants.
“Friends Across the Wires” will continue until Tuesday, April 18.
Thursday, April 6 at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park at 6:30 p.m.
Friday, April 14 at Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup at 6:30 p.m., where the performance is free with admission to the Spring Fair
Sunday, April 16 at Wallingford United Methodist Church in Seattle at 3 p.m.
Tuesday, April 18 at Vashon Center for the Arts in Vashon at 7 p.m.
For tickets and more details, visit seattlehistoricalt.wixsite.com/seattle-historical-t or contact seattlehistoricaltheatre@gmail.com.
Photos courtesy of Laura Ferri Photo of Louise Tsuboi Kashino before she and her family were incarcerated at “Camp Harmony” and Minidoka. Her story inspired the play “Friends Across The Wires”.
