The Dinner Party Podcast
Chiyo Matsutani is a young college student in San Francisco and Hiro Fujimoto has nearly paid off the loan on his Sacramento farm. Both are American citizens when they’re rounded up in 1942 and sent to an incarceration camp where they meet, fall in love, and marry. But when they’re released three years later, Hiro’s farm - like the property of so many Japanese Americans - has been seized. They take the only jobs available to them, as housekeeper and gardener for a wealthy family in Oakland where they face casual racism, harassment, and an unending future of dreary servitude. Based on a true story, this tale of love and resistance is a look behind the curtain at the resilience, humor, and community it took to survive at a time when ”American” didn’t apply to all citizens. More information available at welcometothedinnerparty.com.
Listen on:
Episodes
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Welcome to Chiyo and Hiro Fujimoto's 50th wedding anniversary, an evening to look back and remember their first meeting, at the Tule Lake Incarceration Center in 1942.
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Chiyo and Hiro settle in to Tule Lake, navigating life behind barbed wire, loyalty oaths, and goodbyes to friends headed to war.
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Monday Sep 25, 2023
In April of 1942, no one could have predicted that Japanese-Americans would be away from their lives, homes and businesses for three years of war. Unfortunately, the world to which they returned still saw them as the enemy.
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Monday Sep 25, 2023
What happens when you can't pick up where you left off? You take the only opportunities you can find and start over.
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Monday Sep 25, 2023
Sometimes resistance means taking to the streets and other times it's one small choice after another to fight for the life you deserve.
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
We've stitched all five episodes together, for those of you who'd rather listen all at once.
*Trigger Warning: There is a brief, non-graphic portrayal of sexual assault at the 34:00 mark.