Leah & Japanese American Incarceration

Leah & Japanese American Incarceration

From Inheriting by NPR

June 13, 2024 · 49 min · Season 1 · Episode 5

About this episode

Leah Bash explores her family's history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II and its impact on mental health across generations.

Leah Bash is an avid runner, a dog mom, a wife – and there's a part of her family's history she can't stop thinking about. The fact that both sides of her family were incarcerated alongside 125,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. Her father and his six siblings spent more than three years behind barbed wire at isolated camps in Manzanar, California and Crystal City, Texas. After Leah learns about her father's struggles with panic attacks and is herself diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she starts to wonder: could those experiences at camp during World War II have far-reaching consequences a generation later? Inheriting is entirely funded by supporters like you. If you want to hear future seasons, go to LAist.com/Inheriting and click on the orange box to donate. You can also find resources about the historic events covered in each episode and relevant lesson plans from the Asian American Education Project, including the ones below. Lesson 2.1.1 (Grades Pre-K - 6): Japanese American Incarceration and the U.S. Constitution https://asianamericanedu.org/2.1.1-japanese-incarceration-camps-elementary-lesson-plan.html Lesson 2.3 (Grades 6 - 12): Who Defines Loyalty? Japanese…

People in this episode

Guest: Leah Bash

Topics covered

  • Japanese American incarceration
  • family history
  • mental health
  • World War II
  • bipolar disorder
  • cultural impact

Keywords

  • Japanese American incarceration
  • Leah Bash
  • World War II
  • mental health
  • bipolar disorder
  • family history
  • Manzanar
  • Crystal City

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Asian American Education Project

Places: Manzanar, California, Crystal City, Texas

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