A Divided Community (film)

Film produced and directed by Momo Yashima that tells the story of the Heart Mountain draft resisters through the stories of resisters Frank Emi , Yosh Kuromiya, Mits Koshiyama and journalist James Omura . While Emi and Kuromiya tell their stories on camera, actor Ralph Brannen voices the words of Kuromiya and Omura. Paul Tsuneishi, a veteran and a member of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) who supported the cause of the draft resisters, provides on camera narration and background. Interviews with lawyer Deborah K. Lim, author of The Lim Report , and historian Art Hansen are also included. The title refers both to divisions between Issei and Nisei during the war and between the JACL and those who resisted aspects of the mass incarceration.

Director Yashima, an actor and the daughter of artists Taro Yashima and Mitsu Yashima , learned about the resisters from playwright and writer Frank Chin. Chin later wrote a script about the resisters and asked Yashima to be its narrator. The show evolved over time with the resisters adding to their own stories in various presentations of the show, leading eventually to the film.

Might also like Conscience and the Constitution (2001); Resistance at Tule Lake (2016); Rabbit in the Moon (1999)