AAPI Perspectives: Stories, Struggle, and Solidarity

Moving Forward Together: Memory, Identity, and Community in Fraught Times

In this episode, student Connor Idemoto joins community elders Tom Izu and Susan Hayase for an intimate, multigenerational conversation about identity, belonging, and what it means to “move forward.” Tom and Susan reflect on growing up Japanese American in predominantly white neighborhoods, having friends yet rarely feeling fully seen, navigating racial slurs, and learning early how to code-switch and become an “ambassador” for a culture others misunderstood. Susan shares a pivotal childhood memory of discovering her parents’ incarceration during World War II, only to be told by a teacher, “That didn’t happen,” revealing how denial and erasure can become their own form of trauma. Connor connects these stories to his own life: grappling with cultural invisibility at school, shaping different “masks” to fit social spaces, and tracing his passion for Asian American Studies to interviewing his grandmother about camp, and to personal loss, including his mother’s death, which reshaped his family and sense of self. Together, they explore parenting, education, disability advocacy, and the pressures placed on young people, while insisting that community care and authentic connection are what sustain us in dangerous times. The episode closes with shared advice: stay flexible, don’t fear conflict, keep building across difference, and remember—don’t “move on,” move forward.