NEWS RELEASE Contact : Julie Funasaki Yuen, (808) 454-4870 Dec. 7, - - PDF document

Office of the Chancellor

NEWS RELEASE Contact: Julie Funasaki Yuen, (808) 454-4870

• Dec. 7, 2011

julie@uhwo.hawaii.edu Public Information Officer

UH WEST O‘AHU’S FIRST DISTINGUISHED VISITING SCHOLAR

• DR. FRANKLIN ODO SPEAKS WITH ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY CLASS

ABOUT WORLD WAR II INTERNMENT CAMPS ON THE EVE OF THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACKS

PEARL CITY --- UH West O‘ahu’s first Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Dr. Franklin Odo returned home to Hawai‘i to speak with students in Dr. Christen Sasaki’s Asian American History class about World War II Japanese internment camps, including the Honouliuli Internment and Prisoner

• f War Camp in West O‘ahu, the largest and longest lived of the internment sites in Hawai‘i.
• Dr. Odo’s discussion about Japanese immigrants and the Japanese American population in

Hawai‘i was especially timely on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Dr. Odo also spoke about the our national institutions including the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress and about holehole bushi, the folk songs sung by workers in the cane fields that reveal so much about the cultural lives and daily hardships of the Japanese immigrant population who traveled to find work in Hawai‘i and found themselves in the midst of war following the events of

• Dec. 7, 1941.

Odo, a Kaimuki High School graduate and the first-ever to attend Princeton University from the school, was the founding director of the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American Program since 1997. He was responsible for numerous exhibits highlighting the experiences of Chinese Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, and Indian Americans. Odo retired from the Smithsonian in January 2010 and earlier this year, became chief of the Asian Division at the Library of Congress. Prior to his work at the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, Odo’s 30-year teaching career included professorships at a number of prestigious universities including the University of Pennsylvania, Hunter College, Princeton University and Columbia University. Odo himself received his bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies from Princeton University, a master’s degree in East Asia Regional Studies at Harvard University, and completed his doctoral studies in Japanese history at Princeton University. He is the author of No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i During World War II (2004) and editor of The Columbia Documentary History of the Asian American Experience (2002). In addition to his presentation at UH West O‘ahu, Dr. Franklin Odo addressed the Hawai‘i Library Association Annual Conference at the Westin Moana Surfrider Hotel on Dec. 5 about the Library of

Congress and the future of reading, and will speak with high school students at Mid-Pacific Institute today about the Japanese virtues of enryo (restraint, tact), okage sama de (thanks to you), giri (duty, sense of honor), on (debt of gratitude). He will also speak at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i and address the Library and Information Science Program at UH Manoa’s Hamilton Library. Funding made possible by the James C. and Juanita Wo Foundation. ###

UH West O‘ahu became a four-year, regional comprehensive university when it served its first class of freshmen in fall 2007. The University offers quality education, small classes and personalized attention at convenient locations. Construction began in August 2010 on the first phase of a new, state-of-the-art UH West O‘ahu campus in the City of Kapolei. It is expected to serve approximately 2,000 students for fall 2012 classes. For more information, visit uhwo.hawaii.edu, twitter.com/uhwestoahu, facebook.com/uhwestoahu or call 454-4700 or toll-free (866) 299-8656.

Office of the Chancellor

B-ROLL LOG SHEET

Clip 1

• Dr. Franklin Odo discusses the importance of the Smithsonian and Library of Congress as

institutions expected to tell the truth and how we in Hawai‘i should be aware of how we are represented by our national institutions. He cites the 1940’s as an example of how important it is for us to be aware of how we are perceived as ethnic groups. Clips 2 and 3 Interview with Dr. Franklin Odo, UH West O‘ahu distinguished visiting scholar, chief of the Asian Division at the Library of Congress, former founding director of the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American Program

• Dr. Odo discusses opportunities with the Library of Congress and what people and

businesses in Hawai‘i can think about in forging a partnership with the Library of Congress.

• Dr. Odo discusses his reasons for coming out of retirement after leaving the Smithsonian

and joining the Library of Congress.

• Dr. Odo discusses how his Hawaii roots affected his professional work and his research at

the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. Clips 4 and 5

• Cutaway – Students in class
• Cutaway – Students in class

Clip 6

• Dr. Franklin Odo discusses the events leading up to Harry Minoru Urata being taken to the

Honouliuli Internment and Prisoner of War Camp in West O‘ahu and his role in preserving the holehole bushi, the folksongs sung by Japanese immigrants while working the sugar cane fields. Clip 7

• Dr. Franklin Odo explains the term holehole bushi.

Clip 8

• Dr. Franklin Odo discusses the Japanese internment camps during World War II, the events in

Hawai‘i at the time and how Japanese American citizens in Hawai‘i were not interned despite the internment that happened to all Japanese on the U.S. mainland.

Clip 9

• Dr. Odo finishes presentation amidst student applause.