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  • Would you answer the loyalty questionnaire and lose your country?

    Would you answer the loyalty questionnaire and lose your country?
    2026/09/28
    A pregnant Japanese American poet gives birth on orange crates in a converted horse stall - will a government “loyalty” questionnaire strip them of country and rights?

    Would you answer the loyalty questionnaire and lose your country?

    In this episode, we follow Violet Kazue de Cristoforo’s account of being forced from her home, giving birth in a makeshift camp, and continuing to write through incarceration and displacement. It traces how a two-question loyalty registration forced impossible choices about citizenship, identity, and survival - what would you have done?

    Person: Violet Kazue de Cristoforo
    Event: Forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor
    Location: Fresno Assembly Center; Jerome War Relocation Center; Tule Lake Segregation Center
    Date: Questionnaire issued early 1943; book dated 1944 and finished 1993
    Topic: Loyalty registration (questions 27-28) and its consequences

    - Born in 1912 in Coalinga, California, Kazue was an American citizen who ran a Japanese-language bookshop in Fresno and was active in haiku circles.
    - After Executive Order 9066, Kazue and her family were sent to the Fresno Assembly Center, where she gave birth on a table made from fruit crates inside a horse stall.
    - The War Relocation Authority’s “loyalty” questionnaire arrived in early 1943 with two pivotal items: willingness to serve in the U.S. armed forces, and renouncing allegiance to the Japanese emperor.
    - Answering yes to renounce allegiance could strip legally barred immigrants of their only citizenship; answering no marked detainees as disloyal and risked transfer to places like Tule Lake.
    - Kazue wrote in real time during camps and after, producing a book with a cover date of 1944 that she completed in 1993, preserving the contemporaneous thoughts of poets inside the camps.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 分
  • The Swiss passport in your pocket refuses to get you out-what do you do?

    The Swiss passport in your pocket refuses to get you out-what do you do?
    2026/09/25
    A Polish film star's café opens just months before war engulfs Europe. His Swiss passport should offer escape, but identity becomes a deadly trap.

    The Swiss passport in your pocket refuses to get you out-what do you do?

    This episode explores the life of Eugeniusz Bodo, a celebrated Polish actor whose world was upended by war, and how his inherited Swiss identity became a pivotal factor in his fate. It asks how the objects we use to carry our identities can also be used against us.

    Person: Eugeniusz Bodo
    Birth Name: Bohdan Eugène Junod
    Nationality: Swiss (inherited)
    Occupation: Actor, Singer, Producer, Café Owner
    Died: October 7, 1943

    - Eugeniusz Bodo, born Bohdan Eugène Junod, was Poland's biggest film star, voted King of Polish Actors in 1932.
    - His father, Teodor Junod, a Swiss immigrant, opened Urania, the first permanent cinema in Łódź around 1903.
    - Bodo opened his own café on Pierackiego Street in Warsaw on January 10, 1939, just months before Germany invaded Poland.
    - After the fall of Warsaw, Bodo fled east to Lwów, then under Soviet occupation, and continued to perform with the Tea-Jazz band.
    - He carried a Swiss passport, inherited from his father, which was supposed to be his means of escaping the war.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    15 分
  • Survived the Machete - Found Dead in Munich: The Unfinished Truth

    Survived the Machete - Found Dead in Munich: The Unfinished Truth
    2026/09/24
    A wounded Bangladeshi writer flies to Munich to research poetry months after machete attackers; what happens next tests what it costs to speak?

    Survived the Machete - Found Dead in Munich: The Unfinished Truth

    In this episode, we follow Humayun Azad from his rural origins to international scholarship, through the attacks at a Dhaka book fair and his move to Munich to continue working. We trace the decisions, publications, and threats that shaped his life and ask what it costs a person to say something true out loud.

    Person: Humayun Azad
    Date of attack: 27 February 2004
    Location of attack: Bangla Academy book fair, Dhaka, Bangladesh
    Book contested: Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad (excerpts published 2003)
    Previous legal fight: Naree ban lifted by High Court in 2000

    - Born Humayun Kabir on 28 April 1947 in Rarhikhal, Bikrampur, he legally changed his surname to Azad on 28 September 1988.
    - Educated at the University of Dhaka (undergraduate and master's) and completed a doctorate at the University of Edinburgh in 1976 on pronominalization in Bengali.
    - After winning a Bangla Academy literary award in 1986, he published Naree, a comprehensive Bengali feminist treatise that was banned in 1995 and reinstated in 2000 after a High Court victory.
    - In 2003 he published the novel Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad, its excerpts appearing in the Daily Ittefaq and provoking parliamentary calls for a ban and blasphemy measures a week before the attack.
    - On 27 February 2004 two attackers with machetes struck his jaw, throat, and hands at the Dhaka book fair; he was later treated in Thailand and then traveled to Munich to research poetry.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 分
  • The camp newspaper that defied a nation and defined a writer

    The camp newspaper that defied a nation and defined a writer
    2026/09/23
    A Japanese American teen in a WWII internment camp edits a rebellious newspaper. What would you do?

    The camp newspaper that defied a nation and defined a writer

    This episode explores the life of Albert Fairchild Saijo, named after his father's employer, and the profound impact of his experiences during WWII internment. It delves into how he found his voice as a writer amidst adversity and refused to let others define his story.

    Person: Albert Fairchild Saijo
    Date: 1942
    Location: Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming
    Event: WWII Japanese American internment
    Publication: Heart Mountain Echoes

    - Satoru Saijo, Albert's father, arrived in the US from Japan in 1900 and named his son after his Ohio industrialist employer.
    - Albert Saijo was 15 years old when his family was moved from Los Angeles to the Pomona Assembly Center, then to Heart Mountain.
    - He became the editor of the Heart Mountain Echoes, the camp newspaper, which was supervised by the War Relocation Authority.
    - On the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Saijo published an editorial in the Echoes arguing against racial prejudice.
    - The camp newspaper, under Saijo's editorship, directed readers to Gordon Hirabayashi's federal court challenge against his internment order.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    14 分
  • The Cover-Up That Saved a Life

    The Cover-Up That Saved a Life
    2026/09/22
    A man is shot three times in the head at point-blank range, yet walks away. The cover-up of an organized crime hit accidentally saves a life, but what happens next?

    The Cover-Up That Saved a Life

    This episode delves into the extraordinary life of Ken Eto, a man who navigated the complexities of identity and survival in 20th-century America. It explores the choices he made when every system around him had already decided who he was.

    Person: Ken Eto
    Date of Birth: October 19, 1919
    Location of Birth: Stockton, California
    Organization: Chicago Outfit
    Operation: Bolita

    - Ken Eto left home before finishing high school, choosing to build a life on his own terms.
    - During World War II, Eto was interned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho for seven months.
    - He received a fourteen-year prison sentence for a fraudulent opium deal, maintaining he was deceived.
    - Eto became the highest-ranking Asian American in the Chicago Outfit, running an illegal lottery.
    - His bolita operation generated between $150,000 and $200,000 a week, with $3,000 weekly bribes to police.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • You pedal to Sachsenhausen and ask to enter - who do you save?

    You pedal to Sachsenhausen and ask to enter - who do you save?
    2026/09/21
    A daughter pedals to the gates of Sachsenhausen and asks to enter; a former Norwegian fascist's lists may decide who gets out.

    You pedal to Sachsenhausen and ask to enter - who do you save?

    In this episode, we follow the unfolding of a moral and historical knot centered on Johan Bernhard Hjort and his family during World War II. The story traces decisions, movements, and lists that linked a farmhouse near Potsdam to the rescue of thousands and asks what to do with a person whose worst and best chapters are the same life.

    Person: Johan Bernhard Hjort
    Date: October 1944 memo; February 21, 1941 arrest; 24 February 1969 death
    Location: Gross Kreutz estate, 20 km west of Potsdam; Sachsenhausen concentration camp
    Event: Compilation of field-verified prisoner lists used in the 1945 rescue operation led by Folke Bernadotte
    Number saved: 15,345 prisoners repatriated; 7,795 Scandinavian; 423 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt

    - Hjort co-founded Nasjonal Samling in 1933 and served as its de facto deputy leader and commander of the Hirden by 1935.
    - He proposed reintroducing a clause to bar Jews from Norway in 1935 yet broke with the party in February 1937.
    - After writing a legal brief declaring the German occupation illegal, Hjort was arrested on 21 October 1941 and moved through Grini, the prison ship Donau, and Alexanderplatz.
    - Released on condition he remain in Germany, Hjort lived under supervision at his cousin’s Gross Kreutz estate and compiled precise lists of concentration camp prisoners over nearly three years.
    - In October 1944 a memo from Stockholm connected to Hjort’s lists would later factor into the Bernadotte operation that coordinated white buses across occupied Europe.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 分