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RECOMMENDATION: Discretionary grant of $10,000 to Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media ( http://www.mpr.org ) for Order 9066 , a program about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II
 
Rachel Smoka-Richardson, a senior development officer at Minnesota Public Radio|American Public Media, contacted us early in the year about this documentary program on the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. In light of the xenophobia and ugly rhetoric on immigrants, Muslim immigrants in particular, gripping the United States these days, the proposed APM Reports program Order 9066 is a timely reminder of what can happen in moments of misplaced fear. The Asia Program was unable to encourage a proposal at the responsive grant level because of other commitments in 2017, but the story compelled me to leave the door open a crack to Smoka-Richardson. I suggested she come back to us if a shortfall remained after exhausting other fundraising channels. MPR|APM has secured almost $135,000 of the approximately $170,000 budget, and is optimistic about receipt of another $25,000. The requested $10,000 from HLF would complete funding needs.
 
In addition to the subject matter, I was attracted to the project by MPR|APM’s collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the use of “crowdsourced” historical objects as one approach to telling the story of a dark, and relatively unknown episode in American relations with Asia. This approach was used effectively in the APM Reports’ recent project Historically Black .  Stephen Smith, executive editor and host of APM Reports and a visiting scholar at Macalester College since 2012, boasts an impressive record in broadcast and print journalism.
 
The program, consisting of two, hour-long radio specials, an eight-episode podcast series and a companion website, will be launched in February 2018, timed to the 75th anniversary of FDR’s executive order authorizing the incarceration. I’m thus pleased we can fit this recommendation into December and thank you for your consideration.