The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559

Editor's Pick
This event has passed. Sorry you missed it!
When
Feb. 29–Mar. 22, 2020
Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.–3 p.m.
Where
1111 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97205

The following description was submitted by the event organizer.

"I’d never thought I looked different from the other kids at school, even though most of them were Caucasian. But when I went to school the day after Pearl Harbor, I realized I did look different. My hair was black, my skin was darker and my eyes were almond-shaped. My face was the face of the enemy."

In 1942, 12-year-old Ben Uchida and his family are forcibly removed from their home in San Francisco and relocated to Mirror Lake Internment Camp, along with hundreds of thousands of other Japanese-American families. In this unfamiliar place, removed from everything he once knew, Ben’s emotional journey is even more upsetting than his physical one. Originally commissioned by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., this play details–with anger, despair, sadness and hope–a dark chapter in this country’s history and tells a story that is relevant, moving and one that cannot be forgotten.

“The marvelous thing . . . is that it provides a safe space to examine a scary world. It provides an opening for kids to have the conversations that adults don’t want to have.” –Courtney Sale, Seattle Children’s Theatre

Presented by Oregon Children's Theatre.