Funded in part by grants from Tacoma Creates, CRPF launched its new video series “Our Communities, Our Neighbors.” The first video follows Merilee Tanbara, a third generation Japanese-American, as she writes a historical fiction novel that begins in the 1910s with the first Japanese immigrants and their American-born children. The novel takes readers on an odyssey from life in Tacoma’s bustling and culturally rich Japan Town, to WWII concentration camps, and finally back to Tacoma and the struggle to rebuild life against racial prejudice and suspicion. The research Ms. Tanbara has discovered is both inspiring and heart-wrenching. After writing each chapter, she gathers feedback from her teenage children and this becomes a vehicle to help them gain a deeper understanding about their great grandparents, grandparents, and the Japanese American experience. Media instructors Brian Parker, Kevin Gibson and their students and colleagues at Bates Technical College are the production team for this video.
