One Fighting Irishman: Wayne M. Collins and the Tule Lake Segregation Center (film)

Documentary film profiling lawyer Wayne M. Collins that focuses on his years-long work to nullify the renunciations of thousands of Tule Lake inmates in the years after World War II. Built around a colorfully profane audio of a 1970s interview with Collins by historian Donald Collins (no relation), the film explores Collins' troubled early life, the broader Tule Lake Segregation Center story, and the wide ranging impact Collins' actions had on generations of Tule Lake families, including that of narrator George Takei.

In an interview with Tamiko Nimura, filmmaker Sharon Yamato traces the origin of the film to the 2014 Tule Lake Pilgrimage, where she heard Wayne Merrill Collins—the son of the subject of the film—talk about his father's story. "After the standing ovation Collins received from the many Tule Lake families in the audience, I was driven to find out more." Working with co-director and cinematographer Evan Kodani, Yamato received grants from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program ($198,284) and the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program ($29,400) in 2020. The film premiered at the Japanese American National Museum on October 28, 2023.

Might also like Resistance at Tule Lake (2017); Rabbit in the Moon (1999); Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2000)