“For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” —Gal 5:14
+ Neighbor explores this commandment through the act of storytelling, pilgrimage, painful cultural histories, and more. We are honored to have the voice of Mickey Michiko Yamaguchi, mother of Fuller’s then-Dean of Students Steve Yamaguchi, sharing her first-person experience of incarceration—a voice that inspired FULLER studio to create the video series. The “Neighbor” videos and podcast were created as a reflection on a field trip taken by members of the Fuller community to Manzanar in April 2017—the 75th anniversary of the incarceration of Japanese American citizens after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The series was shot on location at Manzanar in Central California (now a National Historic Site) and on Fuller’s campus in Pasadena, California. We are indebted to the Asian American Center at Fuller and its director, Daniel Lee; then-Dean of Students Steve Yamaguchi; and witnesses Tommy Givens, September Penn, Briana Wyatt, and Lisa Kau. For FULLER studio: Lauralee Farrer, director; Tamara Johnston McMahon, senior producer; Ron Allchin, producer; Nate Harrison, director of photography; Jordan McMahon, cinematographer; Lindsey Sheets, cinematographer; Patrick O’Neil Duff, editor; Julie Kang Tai, voice-over. (c) 2017 FULLER studio. Pictured: a woman gives apples to Japanese Americans as they leave their homes for Manzanar.
“How You See Your Neighbor”
+ Daniel D. Lee, director of the Center for Asian American Theology and Ministry and assistant professor of theology and Asian American ministry, reflects on the “historical echoes” between the Asian American experience and inflammatory rhetoric today, and how the past informs the ways we negotiate violence—in our neighborhoods, in the world, and in ourselves. See an additional interview here:
“Listen More Closely”
+ Brianna Wyatt, MA in Theology student, reflects on landscape, ritual healing, and the need to listen to the stories of others—and be changed in the process.
“I Felt De-Invisibilized”
+ Steve Yamaguchi, then-dean of students, reflects on ethnic and religious identities and how support from the Fuller community gave him the courage to go on a personal pilgrimage. See an additional interview here:
“We’re Stronger When We Come Together”
+ September Penn, MDiv student, considers the resonances between the Japanese American experience and the historic African American struggle for justice.
“February 19, 1942”
+ Steve Yamaguchi, then-dean of students, and September Penn, MDiv student, share their story of how a theater production on the Civil Rights Movement intersected with injustices in his own family’s history.
“Sunday December 7, 1941 changed my life. We were given four days to sell, give away, or abandon businesses. We were allowed to only take bedding, some clothes, whatever we could carry. We could not take radio, knives, cameras, scissors, or pots and pans. There was no partitions in the showers [pause to correct herself] room or between the potties, so there was no privacy. The watch towers had machine guns pointed into the camp to prevent us from escaping. Each morning we were required to pledge allegiance to the flag which ends with ‘liberty and justice for all.’”
+ Mickey Michiko Yamaguchi, in her personal testimony recorded by Tom Dykhuizen, Director of Media at Presbytery of Los Ranchos. Explore more with a conversation between Mickey and Steve Yamaguchi and additional stories on the FULLER curated podcast: