For the Sake of the Children (film)

Documentary film on the impact of the World War II incarceration on the generation of Japanese Americans who grew up after the war. Filmmaker Marlene Shigekawa profiles several Japanese American families, interviewing both surviving Nisei and their children and grandchildren, exploring the questions of why the Nisei generally didn't tell their children about their wartime incarceration and the impact of that silence on the later generations. Much of the focus is on the varying experiences of mothers and daughters. The film uses both historical images and contemporary footage shot at Poston and other camps as well and contemporary camp pilgrimages.

Shigekawa was inspired to make the film after seeing Nisei veterans receive and Congressional Gold Medal and other acclaim and wondering about the story of Japanese American women in the concentration camps. "They raised children and gave birth to children in camp," she told Tomo Hirai. "They showed a lot of bravery and courage, so our intent was originally to do a film focusing on women." Through the Poston Community Alliance, Shigekawa received a grant for $61,880 from the Japanese America Confinement Sites Grant program for a film on mothers and children at Poston in 2011. Working with filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile—who had earlier made the film Passing Poston —she later expanded the project to include all of the camps and to tell a larger story focusing on the children growing up after camp. The finished film debuted in 2017 at screenings across the country

Might also like Good Luck Soup (2016); Relocation, Arkansas: Aftermath of Incarceration (2016); Children of the Camps (1999)