Tokyo House Party is a monthly livestreamed night of Japanese art and culture. Tokyo House Party is always free, and trust us – you’re invited. The party is open to conversation, and we chat in real time with your questions and thoughts as you share them. The party goes live at 6pm CDT here, or on our Twitch channel. You can find us/subscribe to our channel on Twitch
From art history to anime, join the team in a frank and relevant discussion on the history of Orientalism globally, and how this historical system of seeing the world resonates today. With special guests from DePaul University and the Tokyo House Party team, we will explore a dialogue on how we consume meaning through media, and how to encourage new ways of seeing in our shared communities.
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19:00: Momoment - moshi moshi from momo and the team
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19:15: Saira Chambers, Cultural Consumerism and the Power of Seeing
From exoticism, odalisques, and harems fantasized in the art crafted by the “West” to capture the “East” to global imperialism and Edward Said’s reorientation of the world -- Saira will give a crash course on the history and art of Orientalism.
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19:30: Dr. Curt Hansman
On February 19, 1942 - just two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 --President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued United States Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War and the U.S. armed forces commanders to declare areas of the U.S. as military areas “from which any or all persons may be excluded.” While no ethnic group was mentioned specifically, in practice Executive Order 9066 resulted in the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry over 62% of whom were natural born U.S. citizens. This order was rescinded on February 19, 1976 by President Gerald Ford.
Japanese Americans especially those living in urban areas of the west coast were targeted for what was euphemistically termed relocation but which was in reality ‘incarceration; people of all occupations and classes were held in camps. The incarceration was grounded and justified within a profoundly racist world view. Government and popular media were complicit in the intensely dehumanizing anti-Japanese propaganda common in the U.S. during the wartime years. During this segment, we will look at three primary sources from the period, one presenting the U.S. Government rationale for ‘relocation’, and two views from the perspective of Japanese American citizens profoundly affected by it.
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20:00: Dr. Yuki Miyamoto, Romanticized and Dismissed: Asian Women in the Media in 1950s
In 1955, when 25 women who suffered from the atomic bombing in 1945 from Hiroshima landed on the US to receive free reconstruction surgeries for their external wounds, the publicity was not about the horror of the nuclear attacks, but about post-war “American” identity—white, middle-class, Christian, patriarchal and heterosexual nuclear family living in suburbs—merciful to extend their hands to the former enemies. Not only did this propaganda tarnish each individual’s good intention, but also excluded the works by a number of Asian-American women who served as interpreters, accompanying those injured Japanese women (later called, Hiroshima Maidens). One of them was Yuri Kochiyama, who was forced to relocate with her family during WWII, and later became an activist, working with Malcolm X. The romanticization of Asian women, represented by Hiroshima “maidens,” dismissed those who would not fall into the agenda of the “post-war American identity.” Such treatment of women is not particular to the US media alone, but in Japan, as well. Romanticized and Dismissed will discuss Asian women’s media representations in the 1950s, mirroring the cases both in the US and Japan.
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20:30: Orientalism today / Q&A
The Tokyo House Party team considers ‘fan service’, fantasy, the future we build together.
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21:00: SENTIMENTAL TOKYO
Food, Anime, and City Pop explode in an epic DJ set collision between 2D & 3D worlds themed City Pop DJ Set from Van Paugam and Sentimental Tokyo!
Killakuma joined the party to chat about virtual avatars and identities while the Japan Information Center (JIC) brought a very special guest, Mochi the robotic seal! TOTO USA joined us to talk about the technology of toilets, and we wrapped with a chat about gender identity in cyborgs as we streamed Mamoru Oshii's 1995 animated film, Ghost in the Shell together!
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A night of year end traditions from Japan! Five Elements Home joins to talk about Lunar New Year animals, Hadley Go Luckey makes a kurisumasu keki, and Vine Connections shares their top sake picks as no Bonenkai is complete without spirits! Van joins with a VERY special KFC themed holiday City Pop DJ set!
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We chat with author and folklorist Matthew Meyer in conversation about the Japanese fox or Kitsune as a Yokai. Onigiri Shuttle Kororin then joins the night to talk about Inari sushi and other fox approved snacks! Keep watching for the crew at the Midwest Shiba Inu Rescue to talk about some local kitsune you can support here in Chicago!
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