I'm honored to have been asked to compose the music for the opening ceremony of Tadaima 2023. I tried to write a variety of different pieces that would accompany different interviews about the pilgrimages and the Japanese American experience. I'm 1/2 Japanese American, a yonsei (fourth-generation, my great-grandparents came from Japan). During World War II, my grandparents, both US-born citizens, were incarcerated at Rohwer, Arkansas, where my mother was born. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work on a score that directly benefits the preservation of not only my family's history but the history of Japanese Americans in the US.

Tadaima is an online event hosted by Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages (JAMP), an organization dedicated to planning and hosting pilgrimages to the many incarceration camps that were constructed during World War II to house forcibly relocated Japanese Americans. In addition, JAMP hosts many pilgrimages in addition to other events and services relating to the Japanese American incarceration.

Here is a link to the opening ceremony on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f3jUuEdJRc

I decided to preserve the original names that I used when I worked on the pieces as well as giving them names that are a bit more evocative of the moods that they portray: thoughtful, bittersweet, angry, and playful. I also included all of the pieces that I wrote for this project even if not all of them ended up in the final video.

Tadaima 2023 is currently running throughout the entirety of October, and I encourage you to check out the many different programs that they offer: www.jampilgrimages.com/tadaima2023  

Ian Martyn - piano, acoustic guitar, string programming, mixing

All compositions by Ian Martyn.

Cover design by Ian Martyn using an Okita family photo from Rohwer, Arkansas, as well as a photo taken by Ian Martyn of an ancient bristlecone pine in the Patriarch Grove, Inyo National Forest, approximately an hour from Manzanar.

Special thanks to Kimiko Marr, Monika Mizota, and Caroline Kimura of Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages for giving me the opportunity to score this film. Also thanks to Aki Nace who edited the opening ceremony video together.

Find out more about Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages here: www.jampilgrimages.com