Celebrate and explore Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with WKAR!
May 1 - May 31. | Airing in primetime on WKAR-HD and WKAR World. Listings are subject to change.
MAY 2022
1 | Sun | 10 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Asian Americans: Breaking Ground”
In an era of exclusion and U.S. empire, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. Barred by anti-Asian laws they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants,” yet they build railroads, dazzle on the silver screen, and take their fight for equality to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1 | Sun | 11 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Ito Sisters: An American Story”
Explore the lives of three Nisei sisters from the Sacramento Delta, from their childhood on a farm in the Delta to their internment during WWII and beyond.
2 | Mon | 7 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Pacific Heartbeat: The Healer Stones Of Kapaemahu”
On Honolulu's famous Waikiki Beach stand four large stones that represent a Hawaiian tradition of healing and gender diversity that is all but unknown to the millions of locals and tourists passing by. According to legend, the stones are a tribute to four mahu, people of dual male and female spirit, who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii and used their spiritual power to cure disease.
2 | Mon | 9:30 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Vanishing Chinatown: The World Of The May’s Photo Studio”
Discover the story of San Francisco’s changing Chinatown through the story of a family photo studio and the photo archive they left behind. Vanishing Chinatown is a rescue story of early Chinese immigrant history, culture, and adaptation in America.
2 | Mon | 10 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Independent Lens: Try Harder!”
At Lowell High School, San Francisco’s academic pressure cooker, the kids are stressed out. With a majority Asian American student body, high-achieving seniors share their dreams and anxieties about getting into a top university. But is college worth the grind?
3 | Tue | 9 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Independent Lens: Eating Up Easter”
More than just a picture-perfect postcard of iconic stone statues, Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, is a microcosm of a planet in flux. Directed by native Rapa Nui filmmaker Sergio Mata’u Rapu, Eating Up Easter explores the challenges his people are facing, and the intergenerational fight to preserve their culture and a beloved environment against a modernizing society and booming tourism trade.
6 | Fri | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Betrayed: Surviving an American Concentration Camp”
Discover the story of a group of Japanese Americans and their incarceration by the U.S. government during World War II. Through the compelling voices of survivors of Minidoka, a concentration camp in the Idaho desert, Betrayed tells a universal story about unjust internment and the loss of civil rights.
8 | Sun | 10 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Asian Americans: A Question of Loyalty”
An American-born generation straddles their country of birth and their parents’ homelands in Asia. Those loyalties are tested during World War II, when families are imprisoned in detention camps, and brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines.
8 | Sun | 11 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Myanmar Coup: Digital Resistance”
Since seizing power in February, Myanmar's military has resorted to violence to stamp out protests and many people are risking their lives to document the military's brutal crackdown. Videos and photos posted online by civilians have exposed to the world the repression being carried out and have become a force in the "digital resistance" to the military.
9 | Mon | 7 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Pacific Heartbeat: Tokyo Hula”
Today it is estimated there are nearly 2 million people dancing hula in Japan - a figure greater than the entire population of Hawai'i. This documentary examines how tourism, economics, and a love for all things Hawaiian have fueled this cultural phenomenon by focusing on the personal stories of Japanese and Hawaiian master teachers.
10 | Tue | 9 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“American Masters: Waterman - Duke: Ambassador of Aloha”
Narrated by Jason Momoa, discover the inspiring story and considerable impact of five-time Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku. He shattered swimming records and globalized surfing while overcoming racism in a lifetime of personal challenges.
15 | Sun | 10 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Asian Americans: Good Americans”
During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority, and targeted as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office and a coming culture-quake simmers beneath the surface.
15 | Sun | 11 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Myanmar In Turmoil: The Inside Story on the Military Crackdown”
A human rights group says Myanmar's military has killed more than 1,000 people since carrying out the coup in February. In this documentary, NHK takes a look at the financial links between its top officers and two major business conglomerates, and hears from former soldiers who tell us they were trained to view people who support democracy as the enemy.
16 | Sun | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Sky Blossom: Diaries of the Next Greatest Generation”
A raw, inspiring window into 5.4 million children stepping forward as frontline heroes. Caring for family with tough medical conditions, they stay at home doing things often seen only in hospitals. They are cheerleaders, work part-time, go to college and live double lives quietly growing up as America’s next greatest generation.
17 | Tue | 10 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“American Masters: Tyrus Wong”
Until his death at the age of 106, Tyrus Wong was America’s oldest living Chinese American artist and one of the last remaining artists from the golden age of Disney animation. The quiet beauty of his Eastern-influenced paintings had a pioneering impact on American art and popular culture.
19 | Thu | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“America ReFramed: Geographies of Kinship”
In Geographies of Kinship, the complex personal histories of four adult adoptees born in South Korea are weaveed together with the rise of the country’s global adoption program. Raised in foreign families, each adoptee sets out on a journey to reconnect with their roots, mapping the geographies of kinship that bind them to a homeland they never knew.
20 | Fri | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“American Masters: Amy Tan - Unintended Memoir”
An intimate portrait of the groundbreaking writer that interweaves archival imagery, including home movies and personal photographs, animation and original interviews to tell the inspiring story of Tan’s life and career.
22 | Sun | 10 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Asian Americans: Generation Rising”
During a time of war and social tumult, a young generation fights for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, and claim a new identity: Asian Americans. The war’s aftermath brings new immigrants and refugees who expand the population and the definition of Asian America.
22 | Sun | 11 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Shinmachi: Stronger Than a Tsunami”
On the morning of April 1, 1946, a deadly tsunami reduced Shinmachi to rubble. Discover the resilience of a unique Japanese community in Hilo, Hawaii. Their stories bring to life the once-thriving small business district founded by Japanese immigrant plantation laborers who made the bold decision to establish their economic independence from the sugar industry.
23 | Mon | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Local USA: A Tale Of Three Chinatowns”
Exploring the survival of urban ethnic neighborhoods in three American cities: Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Boston. Through the voices of residents, community activists, developers and government officials, the film looks at the forces altering each community and the challenges that go with them, including the pressing issue of urban development and gentrification.
23 | Mon | 9 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Shinmachi: Stronger Than A Tsunami”
Rebroadcast from 5/22.
23 | Mon | 9:30 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Stories From The Stage: Growing Up Asian American”
Every day, millions of people are creating their own definitions of what it means to be Asian American. And to do this, they rely on history, culture, family and friends to deal with their dual identities. Tellers share stories that speak to the richness and variety of the Asian American experience
23 | Mon | 10 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Independent Lens: One Child Nation”
After the birth of her first child, filmmaker Nanfu Wang returns to China to speak with her family and explore the ripple effect of that country's devastating social experiment, the one-child policy. At its core, One Child Nation is a riveting personal story revealing shocking human rights violations and forces us all to reckon with the consequences of blind obedience..
24 | Tue | 9 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“American Experience: Plague at the Golden Gate”
The film takes us back to turn-of-the 20th-century San Francisco, when a deadly outbreak of bubonic plague in the city’s Chinatown and the hunt to identify its source led to an all-too-familiar spate of violent anti-Asian sentiment.
26 | Thu | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“America ReFramed: Chinatown Rising”
Weaving together never-before-seen archival footage and photographs, Chinatown Rising reveals a deeply personal portrait of a San Francisco neighborhood in transition. Chinatown activists of the 1960s reflect on their years as young residents waging battles for bilingual education, tenants’ rights and ethnic studies curriculum that would shape their community and nation.
26 | Thu | 9:30 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“POV Shorts: In The Absence”
A South Korean community is torn apart by a ferry disaster which claimed the lives of hundreds of children. When government incompetence is revealed as the main cause, the victims’ families seek justice.
29 | Sun | 10 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Asian Americans: Breaking Through”
At the turn of the new millennium, the country tackles conflicts over immigration, race, economic disparity, and a shifting world order. A new generation of Asian Americans are empowered by growing numbers and rising influence but face a reckoning of what it means to be an American in an increasingly polarized society.
29 | Sun | 11 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Misty Experiment: The Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail”
The special U.S. Air Force squadron volunteer pilots search for enemy supply transports and anti-aircraft over North Vietnam.
30 | Mon | 8 p.m. | WKAR WORLD 23.2
“Unsettled History: America, China and the Doolittle Tokyo Raid”
This documentary examines a key moment in American/Chinese history, exploring how the two sides remember this shared event in different ways, the reasons for this divergence and what lessons it may hold for today. Recounted by children of the Raiders and their Chinese rescuers, the program offers emotional insights that only family members can provide
31 | Tue | 9 p.m. | WKAR-HD 23.1
“Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day in March”
Explore the fight against Asian American hate following the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta. Examine how this critical moment of racial reckoning sheds light on the struggles, triumphs and achievements of AAPI communities.