Emerging Radiance is a new interactive farmhouse art exhibit located at the Bellevue Library, honoring the untold stories of Japanese American farmers who lived in Bellevue before World War II. Visitors can scan the QR codes to enter the augmented reality experience, where farmers Toshio Ito, Rae Matsuoka Takekawa, and Mitsuko Hashiguchi share their stories in their own voices.
Today, Bellevue is one of the most diverse cities in the State of Washington, with a wide Asian American diaspora. It wasn't always like that.
Before 1920, the land Bellevue now sits on was filled with old growth timber and was a profitable logging community. When Japanese immigrants arrived to lease the cheap, unfarmable plots of land covered in tree stumps, they took a couple years to clear and revitalize the soil for farming. Bellevue transformed into a rural place with profitable farmlands tended by Japanese farmers, and the Strawberry Festival emerged as a celebrated annual gathering. In the 1920s, the atmosphere of discrimination brought forth Alien Land Laws preventing Nikkei from owning land. Then, the federal government incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, and Bellevue's Nikkei farmers were forcibly uprooted from their homes and farmlands.
These stories were compiled and produced by producer/director Tani Ikeda and artist Michelle Kumata into the mixed reality series Emerging Radiance, which won "Best Immersive Project" at the 2022 Tribeca X Awards.
Artwork: Emerging Radiance
Address: Bellevue Library; 1111 110th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
