Local Hero to Be Featured in NHK Documentary
Takeshi “Tak” Furumoto is the subject of the NHK documentary RAISED IN HIROSHIMA, FOUGHT IN VIETNAM
Takeshi “Tak” Furumoto is a Japanese American who was born in an incarceration camp, raised in Hiroshima, and fought in the Vietnam War. In the NHK documentary Raised in Hiroshima, Fought in Vietnam, Furumoto travels in search of closure to his complicated past.
About Tak Furumoto
Born in 1944 in Tule Lake War Relocation Center, one of the ten Japanese American incarceration camps established for the mass incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals living on the West Coast, during World War II, Tak Furumoto is the youngest of Sam Kiyoto and Yoshi Furumoto’s five children. Raised in his father’s war-torn hometown in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing, Furumoto’s family returned to the U.S. in 1956, settling in Los Angeles. After Furumoto graduated from UCLA in 1967, he volunteered to enter the Army. Despite the injustices his family endured in the U.S. during WWII, Furumoto valiantly served our country in the Vietnam War, earning a Bronze Star.
A New Jersey resident since 1971, Furumoto and his wife, Carolyn, have run Furumoto Realty in New Jersey, New York City, and Westchester for more than 50 years. They have dedicated their lives to the betterment of the Japanese American community in both New Jersey and New York. They were instrumental in New Jersey’s adoption of Fred T. Korematsu Day in 2023, relentlessly advocating for the state of New Jersey to recognize January 30 as the Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, a day that honors civil rights hero Fred Korematsu, a California native who refused to enter the incarceration camps in 1942.
To learn more about Furumoto and his contributions to our community, please read Karen Kawaguchi’s in-depth article in Discover Nikkei.
Tak Furumoto still from NHK World Japan
On-Air Schedule
NHK World will broadcast Raised in Hiroshima, Fought in Vietnam on the following days:
Friday, March 21 from 8:10 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 22 from 2:10 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. | 8:10 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. | 2:10 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.
NHK World is available in New York at these channels: Spectrum 1279, Optimum 142, FiOS 482, Xfinity 265 and 1157, and OTA channel 58.2 To find the full details of where you can watch the documentary in your area, please visit the NHK World Channel List on NHK’s website.
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DISCUSS IDENTITIES AT THE ASIAN AMERICAN ARTS ALLIANCE
IDENTITIES: Get Together
Thursday, September 14 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.
Asian American Arts Alliance – 29 W. 38th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), 9th Floor
Admission: Free
The Asian American Arts Alliance will host IDENTITIES: Get Together, a casual conversation about Hidemi Takagi's photography project with Klaudia Ofwona Draber, Executive Director at KODA, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to mid-career artists from diverse backgrounds, and project participants.
Enjoy snacks and drinks, watch a slideshow of artwork, and listen to a discussion about identity of mixed race/multiracial/multicultural people.
This event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required to attend. To register, please visit The Asian American Arts Alliance’s Eventbrite page.
About the Project
IDENTITIES is a photography and interview project started during pandemic with Takagi’s family, a blend of Japanese and Haitian, and it portrays other biracial/multiracial subjects as well. Takagi, who seeks to envision deep roots and explore issues of mixed-race identities, has been working with biracial/multiracial teenagers for this project with their parents’ consent. She takes their portraits and interviews them, asking questions about their experiences, their dreams, how they feel about being mixed-race or multicultural. Takagi chose to work with this age group because teens today are more politically engaged than ever.
So far, she has worked with teens who have lived in New York; New Jersey; Miami, Florida; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Tokyo; and Yokohama. Takagi has been creating complex and whimsically self-consuming images of mixed-race life, its public and private faces, using her art as a tool to explore racial identity, race relations, public presentation of the self, and cultural norms.
Support JapanCulture•NYC by becoming a member! For $5 a month, you’ll help maintain the high quality of our site while we continue to showcase and promote the activities of our vibrant community. Please click here to begin your membership today!