Our new Madama Butterfly is directed by choreographer, dancer, author, and co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface Phil Chan. This new production moves the story to 1940s San Francisco on the eve of Pearl Harbor. When Butterfly, a nightclub performer contributing to the war effort, meets Pinkerton, a young soldier, an unstoppable series of events is set in motion. Through the eyes of Butterfly, audiences will follow her journey from San Francisco to a Japanese incarceration camp, a journey many Japanese Americans lived during a critical moment in U.S. history.
Today’s deeper dive focuses on Japanese incarceration during WWII.
At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, about 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry lived on the US mainland, mostly along the Pacific Coast. About two-thirds were full citizens, born and raised in the United States. Following the attack, a wave of anti-Japanese suspicion and fear led the Roosevelt administration to adopt a drastic policy toward these residents. Virtually all Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes, and permanently relinquish their property before remaining incarcerated for most of the war. The government cited national security as justification for this policy, although it violated many of the most essential constitutional rights of Japanese Americans.
Take a closer look at this timeline (from the Library of Congress) that outlines the events from the attack on Pearl Harbor through reparations which began in 1988.
Boston Lyric Opera presents Madama Butterfly playing Sept 14 – 24, 2023.