Browse > Genre > Documentary

232 articles

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Mr. Tanimoto's Journey (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Individual versus society, Injustice, Power of the past
Widely available

Documentary film about Gridley, California, farmer and former Tule Lake inmate Jim Tanimoto that focuses on his wartime incarceration and on the postwar memory of that time. The film is built around interviews with Tanimoto and footage of him at his farm and at a Tule Lake Pilgrimage, along with interviews with his daughter and granddaughter. Tanimoto and his family went to Tule Lake directly in July 1942 and were placed in Block 42. He was among the many inmates in that block who resisted filling out the loyalty questionnaire and were subsequently imprisoned and held for a time at Camp Tulelake , a former CCC camp. He was eventually allowed to return to Tule Lake and then returned to Gridley in 1945, where he nonetheless faced a great deal of discrimination from locals. Tanimoto and his family also talk about the postwar silence about the incarceration, redress , and …

Ruth Asawa: A Community Artist (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Expression through art, Power of the past
Widely available

Short documentary film on artist Ruth Asawa by Dianne Fukami. Produced as part of a follow-up project to the creation of the "Garden of Remembrance" at San Francisco State University, the documentary highlights Asawa's role in the garden and documents some of her other public art in San Francisco.

Ruth Asawa: Of Forms and Growth (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Expression through art, Nature as beauty, Role of women
Available

Documentary profile of Nisei artist Ruth Asawa produced and directed by Robert Snyder. Of Forms and Growth includes footage of Asawa at home, in her garden and at work, and features the artist talking about her artistic influences and techniques. In particular, she highlights the influence of artists Joseph Albers and Buckminster Fuller, and the film includes footage of Asawa and Fuller. She goes on to talk about the various media she has worked with, including ink and oil paintings, wire and paper sculptures, and sculptures made from baker's clay. The film also explores Asawa's community work, particularly in establishing art programs in schools as well as a community arts festival. Photographer Imogen Cunningham talks about photographing Asawa and her family and about Asawa's marriage to Albert Lanier. Asawa's early life—including her wartime incarceration—is covered only briefly, and her later work that is influenced by Japanese American history is not …

Nisei Soldier: Standard Bearer for an Exiled People (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Patriotism - positive side or complications, Injustice, Heroism - real or perceived
Limited availability

Influential documentary film by Loni Ding that was the first of many to specifically focus on the story of Japanese Americans who served in the armed forces during World War II.

Nisei Stories of Wartime Japan (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Displacement, Facing darkness, Nationalism – complications, Self-preservation
Widely available

Documentary film by Mary McDonald and Thomas McDonald Mazawa that tells the story of Nisei who were trapped in Japan during World War II based on interviews with ten such Nisei.

Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Documentary film by Eric Paul Fournier that chronicles the story of American civil rights hero, Fred Korematsu , whose refusal to obey orders prohibiting Japanese Americans from remaining on the West Coast led to a landmark Supreme Court case .

Ohakamairi: A Visit to the Graves (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Isolation, Power of tradition, Reunion
No availability

Short documentary student film by Janice D. Tanaka that focuses on the annual pilgrimages to Manzanar made by Buddhist Rev. Sentoku Maeda. Shot in 16mm black and white while a student at the University of Southern California (USC), Tanaka's film lets Maeda tell his story in his own voice, accompanied by historical photos and footage of Maeda at the Manzanar site. Incarcerated at Manzanar as a young man, he recalls the Buddhist services held there despite administrative opposition. He talks about the "I-re-to" memorial and his promise to visit the graves at Manzanar once the war is over. For the next twenty plus years, he came back to perform memorial services, sometimes alone. The film ends with his recognition of the "young people" who have turned his lonely pilgrimage into a community event starting in 1969.

9066 to 9/11: America’s Concentration Camps Then… and Now? (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Dangers of ignorance, Evils of racism, Wisdom of experience
Limited availability

A 2004 documentary film directed by Akira Boch that looks at the World War II expulsion of Japanese Americans into American concentration camps through the contemporary lens of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Immediately following the attacks, there was an instant public backlash against Arab Americans and Muslims. As the United States government fought a "war on terrorism" with no end in sight, its tactics and policies were noticeably reminiscent of the rhetoric and immediate steps taken that led to the mass incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. The film draws comparisons between the Japanese and Muslim American experiences, provoking questions about immigration, patriotism, equality and the civil rights and liberties of all American citizens, especially during times of national emergency.

Nebraska's Nisei (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Importance of community
Available

Documentary film produced by the University of Nebraska that tells the story of three Nisei from Heart Mountain who left camp to attend the University of Nebraska through the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council during World War II. The three are Pat Sano, Marie Yamashita Snell, and Tom Shiokari. The story is told through interviews, historical photographs, and unidentified home movie type footage of Heart Mountain. No credits are listed for the production of the film. A nine minute version is available on the University of Nebraska's YouTube channel.

Never Give Up!: Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Biography, Documentary
Convention and rebellion, Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Widely available

Documentary film on the life of Minoru Yasui (1916–86) made by his daughter, Holly Yasui.

Nikkei Style (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Change versus tradition, Importance of community, Power of tradition, Quest for discovery
Limited availability

Personal essay on being Japanese American by Sansei filmmaker Steven Okazaki , narrated in his first person voice. Beginning his journey at a family mochizuki event in Oxnard, California, he explores his family history, taking us to the house he grew up in in Venice, California, and telling us what he knows of his mother's and father's families, including their World War II incarceration (his mother went to Santa Anita , then Amache , his father to Heart Mountain ) and featuring a brief interview with his mother. In search of more information about his father's side, he goes to Japan to visit a distant cousin and to Hawai'i to visit one of his father's old army buddies, from whom he learns much. The film ends with footage from various bon dances in Hawai'i and the continental U.S, which Okazaki cites as a living symbol of being Japanese American. Along …

The Music Man of Manzanar (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Expression through art, Optimism – power or folly, Power of the past
Widely available

A short documentary film by Brian Tadashi Maeda about Lou Frizzell, who came to the World War II American concentration camp at Manzanar to teach drama and music to the Japanese American high school students who were imprisoned there. The film includes interviews with his former students, who were inspired by Frizell's ability to help the students temporarily forget their circumstances and lose themselves to the beauty and power of music and the joy of being young. The film also includes re-enactments of Manzanar High students performing parts of Frizzell's operetta Loud and Clear . The second half of the film turns its attention to Arnold Maeda, the filmmaker's older brother and a student of Frizzell's who performed in Loud and Clear ; we attend a 2002 ceremony at Santa Monica High School in which Maeda and other Japanese American students receive the diplomas they were denied by the mass …

My Friends Behind Barbed Wire (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society
Widely available

Short film that tells the story of the Rev. Emery Andrews , pastor of the Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, and his family and their support of Japanese Americans during their World War II ordeal. The story is largely told through an interview with Brooks Andrews, Emery's son, and through historical photographs, including images from the Andrews family. Brooks provides an overview of the forced removal and incarceration and his childhood recollections of his Nisei friends being taken away. He also recounts the Andrews' family's move to Twin Falls, Idaho, so as to continue to serve the congregation that had been incarcerated at the nearby Minidoka concentration camp and the discrimination they faced from the local community. He also cites parallels to the contemporary treatment of Muslim Americans.

Passing Poston (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past
Available

Documentary film that tells the story of Poston through the lives of four former inmates, Mary Higashi, Ruth Okimoto, Kiyo Sato, and Leon Uyeda. The four—who ranged in age from young adulthood to young childhood at the time of their incarceration—talk about their wartime experiences and also the continuing postwar impacts over footage of government propaganda films and archival and personal photographs.

Personal Justice Denied: An Issue for All Americans (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past
Limited availability

Video of a February 19, 1998, panel discussion at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History on the topic of the coram nobis cases , featuring presentations by principals Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi and lead attorneys Dale Minami , Peggy Nagae , and Rod Kawakami.

A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the United States (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Character - destruction, building up, Rights - individual or societal
Limited availability

Documentary film on Gordon Hirabayashi and his legal challenge to the World War II-era measures against Japanese Americans during the war and the revival of that challenge forty years later. John de Graaf directed the 28-minute documentary, which tells his story in a largely chronological manner, ending with the 1980s coram nobis case verdict. In addition to Hirabayashi's own words and contemporary footage of him visiting such key locales as the Federal Court House in Seattle, where he was first tried; the King County Jail, where he was incarcerated; and his alma mater, Auburn High School, the filmmakers tell the story through interviews with two of his brothers, friends, and some of his lawyers (including Arthur Barnett , his friend and lawyer in the 1940s cases). A Personal Matter aired nationally on Public Broadcasting Service stations in 1992. Among the funders of the film are the National Commission on the …

Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawaii (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Heroism – real and perceived, Patriotism – positive side or complications
Widely available

Documentary film on a Nisei war hero from Hawai'i who served with the Military Intelligence Service during World War II.

One-Two-One-Seven (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Family – blessing or curse, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Power of the past
Widely available

Documentary film by Brett Kodama about the experiences of his grandmother, Sharon Shizuko Okazaki Kodama, at Manzanar . Just three years old when she and her family were forcibly removed from their Southern California home and sent to Manzanar, Okazaki Kodama's Issei father killed her Kibei mother in September 1942. She and her older sister spent the rest of the war at the Manzanar Children's Village , the camp orphanage. They were raised after the war by an aunt and uncle in Washington state. Okazaki Kodama recalls her memories of the camp and the orphanage, talks about her parents' deaths and reflects on the impact on the incarceration over visuals that include archival photographs and footage, photographs from her own family album, and images of the Manzanar National Historic Site today. The title refers to the Okazaki's family number at Manzanar.

People Aren't All Bad (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Companionship as salvation, Darkness and light, Evils of racism
Widely available

Short video by Matthew Hashiguchi that centers on the wartime experience of Yutaka Kobayashi, a Nisei from San Francisco, who recalls a memorable moment of kindness from a guard at Topaz .

Prejudice and Patriotism: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in the Military Intelligence Service of WWII (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real or perceived
No availability

Documentary video that tells the story of Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II, juxtaposing that story against the backdrop of the Japanese American wartime incarceration, highlighting the difficulties brought on by the loyalty questionnaire and its aftermath. Colin Powell introduces and closes the video, which is narrated by Ken Kashiwahara. The story is told using archival footage and photographs and interviews with many MIS veterans and others. No director is identified. The film was produced and funded by the Military Intelligence Service Association of Northern California and the National Japanese American Historical Society.

Prisoners and Patriots (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice
Available

Feature length documentary film on the Santa Fe detention camp. Produced, directed, and written by Neil H. Simon, Prisoners and Patriots is built around interviews of five former Sante Fe inmates, along with inmate family members, others who remember the camp, and those who have studied it. A former broadcast journalist, Simon began the film in 2005 after discovering the camp while working as a reporter in New Mexico. The film premiered in April of 2011 at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland and was featured in Day of Remembrance related events in 2012 in Sacramento and San Francisco.

Piecing Memories (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past
Available

Short film about Japanese American senior citizen women in a Japanese American Services of the East Bay (JASEB) quilting class who make a quilt inspired by their World War II experiences. The seventeen minute film was made by Bridge Media for the JASEB and was funded in part by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program .

Pilgrimage (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past, Fear of other
Widely available

Documentary film that traces the origins of the first Manzanar pilgrimage in 1969 and links it to the 2005 pilgrimage and to efforts to uphold the rights of Arab and Muslim Americans after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The film includes interviews with many of the organizers of the 1969 pilgrimage and archival footage and photographs of that event and of related events from that time. Directed and edited by Tadashi Nakamura, the film was a production of the Center for EthnoCommunications of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in 2008. The film is dedicated to the memory of Sue Kunitomi Embrey , who passed away in 2006. It was funded in part by grants from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, the UCLA in LA Center for Community Partnerships, the California Wellness Foundation, and the Center for Asian American Media.

Our American Family: The Furutas (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Injustice, Importance of community
Available

Episode of the television series Our American Family that focuses on a Japanese American family from Southern California. The episode premiered in February 2015.

Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Role of women
Available

Documentary film profile of Michi Nishiura Weglyn , a Nisei former costume designer and Gila River inmate who wrote the landmark history of the Japanese American exclusion and incarceration, Years of Infamy . The seventeen-minute film, written, produced and directed by Nancy Kapitanoff and Sharon Yamato, includes footage of The Perry Como Show , which Weglyn designed for and also served as a recurring on camera character on, as well as interviews with Weglyn and those who knew her. The film and an associated website were funded in part by grants from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program . Out of Infamy was screened at several film festivals and community events and won a special jury mention at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

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