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Doin' the Jive
Jive Bomber leads us into a world of melodies, memories, and mistletoe this holiday season as Japanese prisoners bring Christmas cheer to the internment camps.
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Grace Kim, Melissa Bechthold, and Kenzo Lee. Photos courtesy of JANM.
Doin' the Jive
Jive Bomber leads us into a world of melodies, memories, and mistletoe this holiday season as Japanese prisoners bring Christmas cheer to the internment camps.
Unfortunately, the only exposure of Japanese internment camps I’ve had, prior to the musical, was my freshmen summer reading assignment of Farewell to Manzanar.I recall that inside the camp of Manzanar, the people had to endure cramped living conditions, poorly preserved food, incomplete housing structures, and non-partitioned toilets. In order to distract themselves from the sobering reality at hand, the internees built up a world within a world filled with random activities and hobbies.Half-expecting a melodramatic portrayal of this historic event, I was surprised to see that the musical was rather light-hearted, sprinkled with whimsical piano-playing and a comical cast of caricatures.
In the first half of A Jive Bomber's Christmas, which was developed for the Japanese American National Museum by Saachiko and Dom Magwili, the characters are all introduced, beginning with Jackson Omata (the jive bomber himself played by Kenzo Lee) as he ‘jives” free-spiritedly to 40’s tunes such as Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.” Omata is not only known as the jive bomber because of his dance moves, but also because he barters records for a living, trading Frank Sinatra for toilet paper. Omata’s neighbor, stuffy and uptight Kei Aragaki played by lead actress Grace Kim, is living her life dutifully at the internment camp while patiently waiting for news from her brother, Hideo, from the war.However instead of dwelling on these hardships, the play seems to focus more on these two characters bantering and bullying each other, festering their love-hate relationship. Just as I was starting to wonder when themusical portionwas going to start, Kim and Lee unexpectedly broke out into song.With the sweet mixture of their theatrical voices, the song had a very Disney-ish feel to it.
The second half of the play covered the Christmas talent show that the detainees had personally planned and showcased. The broken down Christmas production reminded of A Charlie Brown Christmas with the scrappy, homemade decorations andslightly off-note performances. But then again, we can’t expect Broadway at an internment camp. The actors and actresses sang tunes like the applicable “Don’t Fence Me In,” the festive “The First Noel,” as well as popular tune “I Got Rhythm.” Although the modestly charming performances gave the warm fuzzies, it started to get cold when the show-within-a-show felt like it ran just a little too long.
Grace Kim and Kenzo Lee.
Although the lead roles of snazzy Jackson and straight-laced Kei were appropriately cast, the supporting actors and actresses were the ones who stole the show in this production. Aki (Derek Kadota), the earnest mailman and father-figure of the whole play, brought compassion and warmth to the musical as he mourns over his late wife and children. The flamboyant and glamorous singer-actress Mitzi Song (Melissa Bechthold) was an entertaining character foil to the rather “square” roommate Kei. My personal favorite was Alice (Loryce Hashimoto), the cute and bumbling youngster in the play, who brought a roar of laughter to the audience whenever she was onstage. Even characters like the mute Joey (Leonard Wu), who was very reminiscent of Muppet Babies’ silent character Beaker, brought comic relief through his idiosyncratic antics.
Although Jive Bomber might seem like all fun and giggles on the outside, it had some very serious undertones. One of the biggest conflicts in the play was when their Christmas show preparation was unexpectedly interrupted by news from another internment camp, Tule Lake. A violent riot broke out after a detainee got shot from trying to escape. Tension arises as a disheartened Aki considers joining the No-No boys in the protest, while friend Jackson is appalled by Aki’s decision and decides that he, in stark contrast, wants to join the U.S. Army.In the midst of butting heads, there’s only more bad news as Kei’s brother Hideo is missing in action on the warfront.
While the musical does dive into these important conflicts and issues, the musical counterbalances these tragic moments with the hope that brings the people together --whether it is the anticipation of receiving letters from loved ones orsimply enjoying the little things in life such as listening to wonderful music. The show is a candid, yet upbeat display of how human beings learn to “to create normalcy in abnormal circumstances.” Instead of being defaced with humiliation and injustice from their imprisonment, the people of the Heart Mountain internment camp make their lives a little brighter through their attitudes despite their dreary dispositions. Behind barbed wires or white picket fences, Jive Bomber was a humbling reminder that we should be thankful for whatever lot we are given, and that Christmas is, most definitely, all around us.
Performances took place from Friday, December 8 to Saturday, December 16, 2006.
Japanese American National Museum official site: http://www.janm.org/
Date Posted: 12/20/2006