Summer 2022 Digital Humanities Fellowship is an interdisciplinary, technology-enhanced experience rooted in the collaborative ideals of Project Based Learning. Sponsored by the University Library, teams embark each summer on short, but intensive inquiries into complex, open-ended questions.
The Summer 2022 fellowship centered on student-led investigations into the stories of Japanese American Pacific students who were incarcerated during World War II. Research revealed themes of perseverance and subsequent civil engagement to right the wrong done to the Japanese American community. The fellows created and published a smartphone app that showcased a visually and textually engaging exploration.
Supported by a team of faculty and staff with expertise in public history, design, user experience, digital projects and librarianship, seven fellows created an original, relevant, and aesthetic immersive experience in just five weeks.
This experience is an extension of the Pacific Digital Humanities as their goal is to further knowledge of history through digital mediums to understand how individuals relate to the past. One aspect of this goal is the use of digital art in the app. The digital drawings were created with authenticity in mind to make the historical figures relatable to the target audience of University of the Pacific students.
Want to read more? Download the full report of the project by clicking here.
For instructions on loading the augmented reality app tour onto your Android device, click here, or onto your Apple device by clicking here.
Summer 2022 Fellows: Alan Barragan, Chris Fines, Mayu Otsuka, Dominick Restivo, Tina To, George Trammel, Kailey Wong.
Fellowship Faculty Lead: Lisa Cooperman
Team: Keely Canniff, Chris Crawford, Jennifer Helgren, Marie Lee, Nicole Mountjoy, Mike Wurtz.
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Kizuna: Bonds Beyond Incarceration - An Immersive History of Student Perseverance
Digital Humanities Fellowship 2022
2022 Fellowship Report
The Summer 2022 fellowship centered on student-led investigations into the stories of Japanese American Pacific students who were incarcerated during World War II. Research revealed themes of perseverance and subsequent civil engagement to right the wrong done to the Japanese American community. The fellows created and published a smartphone app that showcased a visually and textually engaging exploration.
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Kizuna for Android
Digital Humanities Fellowship 2022
Kizuna: Bonds Beyond Incarceration is an immersive storytelling experience following the paths of 9 University of the Pacific students, who were part of the 122,000 Japanese Americans impacted by Executive Order 9066 and torn from the lives they knew. Their stories enlighten us about this tragedy and the strength needed to endure it.
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Kizuna for Apple
Digital Humanities Fellowship 2022
On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, escalating pre-existing racist views towards Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens. The “yellow peril” concept, accusing Japanese Americans of threatening the “white race”, led to restrictive immigration, naturalization, and property ownership laws. On February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 tore 122,000 Japanese Americans, including 55 University of the Pacific students, from the lives they knew. Their stories enlighten us about this tragedy and the strength needed to endure it.
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The Japanese Club
Tina To
The Japanese Club is the campus home to 55 Japanese American students. Inside Anderson Hall, students are chatting, a student is playing piano, and a young woman is putting up posters for the winter dance.
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Richard, James, and Frank Doi
Tina To
James, Richard, and Frank Doi aren’t brothers but they were inseparable in high school. Jimmie balanced farming and homeschool before attending Stockton High; now he’s headed to Berkeley for his PhD. Frank and Richard are going too. Mary Yamashita, Jimmie’s friend, will study another year here and edit the Pacific Weekly.
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James Doi
Tina To
Jimmie balanced farming and homeschool before attending Stockton High; now he’s headed to Berkeley for his PhD.
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Grayce Kaneda
Tina To
Grayce’s senior piano recital is close at hand. She and her siblings, Toshio and Kei, form the musical core of the Japanese club. Influenced by her musician mother, Tome Kaneda, Grayce plans to be a music teacher, sharing her family’s tradition.
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George Akimoto
Tina To
George Akimoto, a Stockton High graduate, draws cartoons for the Pacific Weekly. As an art major, George’s witty drawings are featured in every issue. He communicates the humor and irony of life’s daily events.
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Marie Mizutani
Tina To
Marie, the dance committee organizer, puts down the posters and thanks George Akimoto, club historian and Pacific Weekly cartoonist, for advertising the dance. Marie’s from Walnut Grove, a close-knit Japanese American agricultural community in the San Joaquin Delta. Her efforts on the committee build a closer Pacific community.
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Mary Yamashita
Tina To
Mary, a Stockton Junior College student, reports and edits for the Pacific Weekly newspaper too. She and Jimmie met in study hall at Stockton High and use the club meetings to catch up. Mary plans to pursue an English degree and Jimmie will go to Berkeley for his PhD.
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Toshio and Kei Kaneda
Tina To
The Kaneda siblings are all music majors. Toshio is not quite ready to graduate; his part-time work takes a lot of his time. Kei, a Stockton Junior College student, is catching up to her older brother in her piano studies. She is thinking of applying to a different university for her degree. They’re excited to hear Grayce’s recital at the end of the semester.
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Stockton Assembly Center Splash Page
Tina To
Families arrive at the gates of the Stockton Fairgrounds. They form a long line and soldiers search their personal items. It’s late spring and suffocating dust fills the air. The rough-hewn rooms offer little privacy. Fewer than two dozen buildings will house those displaced by Order 9066 as the incarcerated face uncertainty.
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Destination: Rohwer, Arkansas
Tina To
Among the 500 incarcerees being removed from California is the Kaneda family. The headline “Destination Arkansas” warns them to pack what they can for the 3-day journey to Rohwer.
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People lining up to get on the train
Tina To
Grayce and her family board a barely furnished train. The wooden benches inside each hot musty car seat 70 passengers. There will be no stops to stretch and no beds for sleeping.
For many passengers this is the first trip east, and new landscapes offer pleasant diversion. Their final scenery, however, will be barbed wire and guard towers at Rohwer.
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Rohwer, Arkansas Splash Page
Tina To
A large complex of tar-paper buildings including mess halls, barracks, showers, and an incomplete school and hospital are surrounded by wire fences.
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The Japanese Club
University Archives
The Japanese Club
University Archives, Naranjado Vol. 37, 1942, Page 165
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Barracks #2
University Archives
Barracks #2
University Archives, MSS 235 Yoshikawa Family Collection
