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{ "id": "From a Silk Cocoon (film)", "doctype": "articles", "links": { "html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/From%20a%20Silk%20Cocoon%20(film)/?format=api", "json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/articles/From%20a%20Silk%20Cocoon%20(film)/?format=api" }, "title_sort": "fromasilkcocoonfilm", "description": "Documentary film recounting the wartime story of a\n \n Kibei\n \n couple, Itaru and Shizuko Ina and their two young children as reconstructed by their daughter Satsuki Ina. Ina and co-directors Emery Clay III and Stephen Holsapple tell the story largely through the couple's own words in the form of Shizuko's diary and letters to each other when they become separated in the course of their incarceration.", "rg_rgmediatype": [ "films" ], "mediatype_label": "Films and Video", "mediatype_icon": "fa-film", "rg_interestlevel": [ "Grades 9-12", "Adult" ], "rg_genre": [ "Documentary" ], "rg_theme": [ "Individual versus society", "Injustice", "War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy" ], "rg_availability": [ "Widely available" ], "categories": [ { "title": "Arts" } ], "topics": [], "authors": [ { "title": "Brian Niiya", "json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api", "html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "en-fromasilkcocoon-1", "json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/sources/en-fromasilkcocoon-1/?format=api", "html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/sources/en-fromasilkcocoon-1/?format=api" } ], "title": "From a Silk Cocoon (film)", "source_ids": [ "en-fromasilkcocoon-1" ], "published_rg": true, "modified": "2018-03-01T02:45:57", "databoxes": { "rgdatabox-Core": { "rgmediatype": [ "films" ], "title": [ "From a Silk Cocoon" ], "creators": [], "interestlevel": [ "Grades 9-12", "Adult" ], "readinglevel": [], "guidedreadinglevel": [], "lexile": [], "theme": [ "Individual versus society", "Injustice", "War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy" ], "genre": [ "Documentary" ], "pov": [ "Told from perspective of Sansei daughter discovering family history" ], "relatedevents": [], "availability": [ "Widely available" ], "freewebversion": [ "No" ], "primarysecondary": [], "hasteachingaids": [ "No" ], "warnings": [], "denshotopic": [], "geography": [ "San Francisco" ], "chronology": [ "1940s and 2000s" ], "facility": [ "Segregation and Tule Lake [86]", "Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah", "Tule Lake [10] - Newell, California", "Fort Lincoln (Bismarck) [28] - Bismarck, North Dakota", "Crystal City [29] - Crystal City, Texas" ] }, "databox-Films": { "title": [ "From a Silk Cocoon" ], "date": [ "2005" ], "genre": [ "Documentary" ], "released": [], "director": [ "Emery Clay III", "Stephen Holsapple", "Satsuki Ina" ], "producer": [ "Satsuki Ina" ], "writer": [ "Satsuki Ina" ], "screenplay": [], "story": [], "basedon": [], "narrator": [ "Lawson Fusao Inada" ], "starring": [ "Satsuki Ina (storyteller)", "Lane Nishikawa (voice of Itaru)", "Megumi (voice of Shizuko)", "Kimberly Ina (Shizuko)", "Christopher Sato Wong (Itaru)" ], "music": [ "Masayuki Koga", "Fred Meggs" ], "cinematography": [ "Stephen Holsapple" ], "editing": [], "studio": [ "Hesono O Productions" ], "distributor": [ "Center for Asian American Media" ], "runtime": [ "57 minutes" ], "country": [], "language": [], "budget": [], "gross": [], "imdblink": [ "<a class=\"external free\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454982/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454982/</a>" ], "trailerlink": [] } }, "rg_title": [ "From a Silk Cocoon" ], "rg_pov": [ "Told from perspective of Sansei daughter discovering family history" ], "rg_freewebversion": [ "No" ], "rg_geography": [ "San Francisco" ], "rg_chronology": [ "1940s and 2000s" ], "rg_hasteachingaids": [ "No" ], "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div class=\"floatright\">\n </div>\n <div class=\"rgonly\">\n <!--\"rgdatabox-CoreDisplay\" removed-->\n <div id=\"rgdatabox-Core\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n RGMediaType:films;\nTitle:From a Silk Cocoon;\nCreators:;\nInterestLevel:Grades 9-12; Adult;\nReadingLevel:;\nGuidedReadingLevel:;\nLexile:;\nTheme:Individual versus society; Injustice; War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy;\nGenre:Documentary;\nPoV:Told from perspective of Sansei daughter discovering family history;\nRelatedEvents:;\nAvailability:Widely available;\nFreeWebVersion:No;\nPrimarySecondary:;\nHasTeachingAids:No;\nWarnings:;\nDenshoTopic:;\nGeography:San Francisco;\nChronology:1940s and 2000s;\nFacility:Segregation and Tule Lake [86]; Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah; Tule Lake [10] - Newell, California; Fort Lincoln (Bismarck) [28] - Bismarck, North Dakota; Crystal City [29] - Crystal City, Texas;\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-Films\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n Title:From a Silk Cocoon;\nDate:2005; \nGenre:Documentary;\nReleased:;\nDirector:Emery Clay III; Stephen Holsapple; Satsuki Ina;\nProducer:Satsuki Ina;\nWriter:Satsuki Ina;\nScreenplay:;\nStory:;\nBasedOn:;\nNarrator:Lawson Fusao Inada;\nStarring:Satsuki Ina (storyteller); Lane Nishikawa (voice of Itaru); Megumi (voice of Shizuko); Kimberly Ina (Shizuko); Christopher Sato Wong (Itaru);\nMusic:Masayuki Koga; Fred Meggs;\nCinematography:Stephen Holsapple;\nEditing:;\nStudio:Hesono O Productions;\nDistributor:Center for Asian American Media;\nRuntime:57 minutes;\nCountry:;\nLanguage:;\nBudget:;\nGross:;\nIMDBLink:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454982/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454982/\n </a>\n ;\nTrailerLink:;\n </p>\n </div>\n <p>\n Documentary film recounting the wartime story of a\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Kibei\" title=\"Kibei\">\n Kibei\n </a>\n couple, Itaru and Shizuko Ina and their two young children as reconstructed by their daughter Satsuki Ina. Ina and co-directors Emery Clay III and Stephen Holsapple tell the story largely through the couple's own words in the form of Shizuko's diary and letters to each other when they become separated in the course of their incarceration.\n </p>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Synopsis\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Synopsis\">\n Synopsis\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Satsuki Ina begins the story by recounting her discovery of her parents' documents and photographs in a box. She briefly narrates their early lives: Shizuko was born in rural Washington, but after her mother died when she was three, Shizuko was sent to Japan to be raised by her maternal grandmother. Called back to the U.S. at age 13, she returned to Japan after graduating high school to care for her grandmother. Itaru was born in San Francisco, but his mother took him to Japan where he was largely raised. He returned to the U.S. at age 13. When Shizuko is selected as a \"silk girl\" representing Japan at the 1939 Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, a family friend introduces her to Itaru. The couple fall in love and soon decide to get married. Letters between the couple capture this moment that leads to their marriage in San Francisco in March 1941.\n </p>\n <p>\n Shizuko's diary records her misgivings over the growing tensions between Japan and the U.S. and the run up to war, and eventually, the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans. Adding to the travails of her removal and incarceration is her pregnancy. She describes conditions first at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Tanforan_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Tanforan (detention facility)\">\n Tanforan Assembly Center\n </a>\n and then at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Topaz\" title=\"Topaz\">\n Topaz\n </a>\n , where son Kiyoshi is born in December 1942. When the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Loyalty_questionnaire\" title=\"Loyalty questionnaire\">\n loyalty questionnaire\n </a>\n is circulated in early 1943, Itaru becomes a leader of efforts to protest the questionnaire, citing their rights as American citizens. This makes him a marked man, and he is eventually charged with sedition. The family is sent to\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Tule_Lake\" title=\"Tule Lake\">\n Tule Lake\n </a>\n in September 1943 where festering anger and recurrent bouts of poor health push them towards Japan. A second child, Satsuki, is born in Tule Lake. Later, Itaru is taken out of Tule Lake and sent to the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Fort_Lincoln_(Bismarck)_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Fort Lincoln (Bismarck) (detention facility)\">\n Bismarck, North Dakota\n </a>\n , internment camp, while Shizuko and the children remain at Tule Lake. Letters between the couple recount their decision to renounce their U.S. citizenship and to return to Japan. Though their resolve to return remains strong even after the war ends, reports on the terrible conditions in Japan lead them to reconsider in the interest of the two young children. But rumors that they may be deported anyway further discourage them, even as the family reunites at the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Crystal_City_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Crystal City (detention facility)\">\n Crystal City\n </a>\n internment camp in April 1946.\n </p>\n <p>\n Voice actors—Megumi for Shizuko and Lane Nishikawa for Itaru—tell much of the story in their own words. Satsuki Ina and narrator\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Lawson_Fusao_Inada\" title=\"Lawson Fusao Inada\">\n Lawson Inada\n </a>\n fill in other parts of the story. In addition to family photographs and archival stills and video, key scenes are silently recreated by actors (Kimberly Ina as Shizuko and Christopher Sato Wong as Itaru).\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Background_and_Reception\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Background_and_Reception\">\n Background and Reception\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Filmmaker Satsuki Ina is a psychotherapist and emeritus professor at California State University, Sacramento. When she saw a picture of her father in the Tule Lake stockade in the Smithsonian Institution's \"\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution (exhibition)/\" title=\"A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution (exhibition)\">\n A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution\n </a>\n \" exhibition, she became determined to learn more about her family's history. After her father's passing in 1977, she found her mother's letters to him among his possessions. After her mother's passing in 2000, she found his letters to her along with her diary. Working with much of the same team that worked on her prior film,\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Children of the Camps (film)/\" title=\"Children of the Camps (film)\">\n Children of the Camps\n </a>\n </i>\n (1999), Ina and co-directors Stephen Holsapple and Emery Clay III began production in 2003 with the aid of funding from\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/California_Civil_Liberties_Public_Education_Program\" title=\"California Civil Liberties Public Education Program\">\n California Civil Liberties Public Education Program\n </a>\n grant and from the Center for Asian American Media. It premiered at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento in February 2005 and has subsequently screened around the country. Among other awards,\n <i>\n From a Silk Cocoon\n </i>\n won Emmy Awards in the Historical/Cultural Program category from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, San Francisco/Northern California Chapter in 2006.\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Brian_Niiya\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n <p>\n Might also like\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Resistance at Tule Lake (film)/\" title=\"Resistance at Tule Lake (film)\">\n Resistance at Tule Lake\n </a>\n </i>\n (2016);\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Rabbit in the Moon (film)/\" title=\"Rabbit in the Moon (film)\">\n Rabbit in the Moon\n </a>\n </i>\n (1999);\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Children of the Camps (film)/\" title=\"Children of the Camps (film)\">\n Children of the Camps\n </a>\n </i>\n (1999)\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n", "moreinfo": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Official website:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.fromasilkcocoon.com/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.fromasilkcocoon.com/index.html\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n Center for Asian American Media website:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://caamedia.org/films/from-a-silk-cocoon/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://caamedia.org/films/from-a-silk-cocoon/\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n Halverson, Mark. \"\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/lest-we-forget-history/content?oid=33875\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Lest We Forget History.\n </a>\n \"\n <i>\n Sacramento News & Review\n </i>\n , Feb. 17, 2005.\n </p>\n <p>\n Jeffs, Angela. \"\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2006/09/23/general/award-winning-docudrama-from-a-silk-cocoon/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Award-Winning Docudrama 'From a Silk Cocoon,'\n </a>\n .\"\n <i>\n The Japan Times\n </i>\n , Sept. 23, 2006.\n </p>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20230613175341\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.020 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.026 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 397/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 9180/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 2578/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 4/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 0/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 9.025 1 -total\n 27.50% 2.482 1 Template:Databox-Films\n 25.72% 2.321 1 Template:RGDatabox-Core\n 15.73% 1.420 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 14.75% 1.331 1 Template:Published\n 14.23% 1.284 1 Template:publish-rgonly\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:1738-0!canonical and timestamp 20230613175341 and revision id 28511\n -->\n </div>\n</div>" }