TY - JOUR
T1 - The Power of Documentary Theatre to Promote Cross-National Understanding
T2 - Personal Impact of Performing With Their Voices Raised by Japanese and American Youth Actors
AU - Liehr, Patricia
AU - Matsuda, Yui
AU - Ito, Mio
AU - Morris, Kathryn
AU - Nishimura, Chie
AU - Takahashi, Ryutaro
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this article is to share descriptions of the personal impact for cross-national youth actors (Japanese, American) who performed With Their Voices Raised (Voices), a documentary theater script that shares the stories of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima survivors who lived through the bombings of December 7, 1941, and August 6, 1945, respectively. Design/Methods: This was a descriptive exploratory focus group study conducted immediately after student-actors from Funairi High School in Hiroshima (n = 15) and Farrington High School in Oahu, Hawaii (n = 8), performed Voices. Data were content analyzed by a cross-national research team to address the question “What was the personal impact of performing Voices for Japanese and American youth actors?” Findings: There were three themes that crossed national boundaries: sense of power of the message from real-life people, new cross-national awareness, and moving beyond familiar history to engage and learn. The fourth theme distinguished the youth groups: for Japanese youth, performing Voices inspired an awareness of their local focus; for American youth, it enlivened youth-to-youth engagement as a learning approach. Conclusions: Documentary theater script is a creative, holistic approach with the potential to bridge divisiveness and promote cross-national understanding.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this article is to share descriptions of the personal impact for cross-national youth actors (Japanese, American) who performed With Their Voices Raised (Voices), a documentary theater script that shares the stories of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima survivors who lived through the bombings of December 7, 1941, and August 6, 1945, respectively. Design/Methods: This was a descriptive exploratory focus group study conducted immediately after student-actors from Funairi High School in Hiroshima (n = 15) and Farrington High School in Oahu, Hawaii (n = 8), performed Voices. Data were content analyzed by a cross-national research team to address the question “What was the personal impact of performing Voices for Japanese and American youth actors?” Findings: There were three themes that crossed national boundaries: sense of power of the message from real-life people, new cross-national awareness, and moving beyond familiar history to engage and learn. The fourth theme distinguished the youth groups: for Japanese youth, performing Voices inspired an awareness of their local focus; for American youth, it enlivened youth-to-youth engagement as a learning approach. Conclusions: Documentary theater script is a creative, holistic approach with the potential to bridge divisiveness and promote cross-national understanding.
KW - adolescents
KW - common themes
KW - documentary theater
KW - group/population
KW - qualitative research
KW - transcultural/diversity
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U2 - 10.1177/0898010120959871
DO - 10.1177/0898010120959871
M3 - Article
C2 - 32959720
AN - SCOPUS:85091348658
VL - 39
SP - 154
EP - 163
JO - Journal of Holistic Nursing
JF - Journal of Holistic Nursing
SN - 0898-0101
IS - 2
ER -