Highlights from Kintsugi 2024
We’re excited to share highlights from the Kintsugi Gathering, held from October 3-6, 2024, in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. It was a powerful four-day event filled with connection, learning, healing, and community building.
Hosted by Tsuru for Solidarity, with our partners the Shinso Ito Center at USC and the Japanese American National Museum, the conference brought together over 130 participants, spanning four generations. Attendees engaged in a carefully curated experience that included lectures, healing circles, and the moving play “Garage Door Opener” by the Grateful Crane Ensemble, which explores multigenerational Japanese American trauma.
Other key moments included:
- A panel on multiracial/multiethnic Japanese American identity
- Generational cohort breakout sessions
- Healing rituals led by the Wakasa Memorial Committee
- Two rounds of workshops by community advocates on the theme of community repair
- An evening plenary with Black reparations leaders, Dr. Cheryl Grills and Dr. Marcus Hunter
- Participation in FandangObon, hosted by Great Leap
- A special Ireicho Ceremony led by Sensei Duncan Williams and other Buddhist and Christian clergy
The gathering was devoted to addressing and healing multigenerational trauma in the Japanese American community, rooted in the mass incarceration during World War II.
To kick off the event, TFS co-founder Michael Ishii framed the conference’s goals, followed by a workshop on intergenerational trauma led by Dr. Satsuki Ina, and a lecture by Dr. Donna Nagata, who shared insights from her extensive research on trauma across the nisei, sansei, and yonsei generations.
Healing Circles
Tsuru for Solidarity was proud to host four daily Healing Circles throughout the weekend of Kintsugi2024! This was a unique format to healing circles than what had been done previously. With so many plenaries, workshops and stories shared, Healing Circles, developed by Dr. Satsuki Ina, became the centralized space for participants to reflect and process the information that they were taking in. We invited 25 healing circle facilitators from all over the U.S. and Canada to help hold space for participants.
Participants not only had the chance to process and reflect on the information, but also build connections and hear experiences from other community members in their groups, creating a deeper sense of community across generations. One participant shared “I came away from the healing circles feeling enveloped in care and community in a way I had never felt before, with a group of people I had just met a few days earlier.” We thank both our amazing facilitators and participants for holding space for each other, putting in work and vulnerability, and creating such a powerful sense of community.
Multiracial/Multiethnic Nikkei Experiences
For over 50 years, a significant portion of the Japanese American community has been shaped by intermarriage, with at least half marrying and having children with partners from different ethnic backgrounds. This panel focused on the experiences of multiracial and multiethnic Nikkei, offering insights into the intergenerational impacts of these identities.
Panelists highlighted the confusion, false narratives, and stereotypes they faced as people of mixed heritage. They spoke about often feeling they didn’t fully belong to any community, yet were forced to choose, while navigating racism that neither of their parents could fully understand. Additionally, they discussed confronting the “hybrid vigor” trope, which positioned them as somehow stronger or superior to their parents—a narrative that often led to internal conflict.
Some panelists shared how they felt pressured to assimilate as a survival strategy, acknowledging the harm and trauma this caused. By embracing their multiracial identities and engaging with the Nikkei community in their own unique ways—such as through activism, art, and academia—they were able to cultivate a sense of home, community, and belonging.
Generational Discussions
Participants met in generational cohort groups to reflect on what is specific to their generation as Japanese Americans in terms of intergenerational trauma. There were groups of Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei, Gosei and Shin-Nikkei. Many of the generational groups included people born decades apart and so many of the generational groups broke into even smaller groups. Facilitators then allowed people to share their thoughts and feelings specifically about how the incarceration and experiences of racism have affected them.
Later in the conference, generational cohorts came together to share common themes, including the silence surrounding wartime incarceration and an appreciation for the space these groups provided, where many found shared experiences—sometimes for the first time. The similar experiences felt within each generation were affirming and fostered a sense of collective identity. One of the younger participants shared that this was the first time they had met and spoken with other young, mixed-heritage Japanese Americans, and it was a life-changing experience.