Browse > Genre > Documentary
262 articles
Encounter with the Past: American Japanese Internment in World War II (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice
- No availability
A 1980 documentary film on the history of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans at Manzanar , produced and directed by Tak Shindo , a Nisei musician and composer, best known for his albums from the jazz exotica music era and television soundtrack work. The film is built around color footage of the camp taken by Aksel Nielson, the director of recreation at Manzanar. Narrated by Shindo, the film includes his own experiences at Manzanar, military service, and subsequent musical career. Though he had passed away prior to the making of the film, Nielson's voice can be heard describing scenes of sporting events and gardens at Manzanar, and his wife, Melva Nielson, a music teacher at Manzanar, is interviewed at length on camera. Among those appearing in the film are Military Intelligence Service veteran Yukio Tamura, artist Estelle Ishigo , photographer Toyo Miyatake , nursery owner Shinobu Mashiko, …
Enduring Democracy: The Monterey Petition (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Darkness and light, Importance of community, Power of words
- Available
Documentary film that tells the story of a petition signed by over four hundred white residents of the Monterey Bay area urging acceptance of returning Japanese Americans that appeared in the local newspaper in May 1945, claimed to be the only such petition to emerge from any West Coast area.
Gila River and Mama: The Ruth Mix Story (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Loss of innocence, Power of the past
- Available
Documentary film that tells the story of the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans through the eyes of Ruth Mix, who as a fifteen year old, accompanied her mother Frida, a teacher, to Gila River and lived among the inmates. Filmmaker Claire Mix is the daughter of Ruth.
Going for Broke (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real and perceived
- Widely available
Documentary film that provides an overview of Japanese Americans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion , 442nd Regimental Combat Team , and Military Intelligence Service (MIS) during World War II using archival footage, interviews, and contemporary footage of key wartime locations. The film also includes information on the history of Japanese Americans before the war and the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and is narrated by George Takei and "hosted" by Daniel Inouye . Going for Broke was produced in 2005 by the Go For Broke Educational Foundation, with funding from Farmers' Insurance. The film's tagline is "They Believed in America, When America No Longer Believed in Them."
Forsaken Fields (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Displacement, Necessity of work, Working class struggles
- Limited availability
Documentary film on the impact of wartime incarceration on Japanese American farming in California.
A Tradition of Honor (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heroism – real and perceived, Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Feature length documentary telling the stories of Japanese American soldiers in the 100th Infantry Battalion , 442nd Regimental Combat Team , and Military Intelligence Service , produced in 2002 by the Go For Broke National Education Foundation.
Searchlight Serenade (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art
- Available
A 2012 documentary film on Japanese American swing dance bands in the World War II concentration camps. Produced by Claire Reynolds for KEET, a Eureka, California, based public television station serving California's northern coast, the hour long documentary debuted on October 30, 2012. The film was funded by grants from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant program, the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , and the Humboldt Area Foundation (Victor Jacoby Artist Grant).
After Silence: Civil Rights and the Japanese American Experience (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Patriotism - complications, Fear of other, Power of the past
- Limited availability
Documentary film that focuses on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island, Washington , as recounted through the perspective of Dr. Frank Kitamoto, who was a child during World War II. The story is told through interaction between Kitamoto and a small group of high school students from Bainbridge High School as they develop archival photographs from the incarceration and discuss its relevance to post 9/11 America. The film ends with the 2002 dedication of a memorial and plaque marking the site of the Bainbridge Islanders' departure. After Silence was produced by the Bainbridge Island Historical Society as part of an exhibition on the community's World War II experience, with funding from the Washington State Civil Liberties Public Education Program and the Charles W. Gaugl Foundation.
Starting Over: Japanese Americans After the War (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Rebirth, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film centering on the return of Japanese Americans to their homes after their exclusion and incarceration in concentration camps.
Aleut Evacuation: The Untold War Story (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past
Documentary film that tells the story of the forced removal and incarceration of the Aleut people from their ancestral Alaskan homes to detention camps in southwest Alaska during World War II. Based on interviews with surviving inmates and their descendants and on historical photographs and documents, Aleut Evacuation proceeds in largely chronological fashion, starting with a brief portrait of the Aleut community prior to the war, then covering their forcible removal by the U.S. government—ostensibly for their own protection in the face of possible Japanese attack—and their subsequent incarceration in several different camps. Focusing first on the largest camp, Funter Bay, which held those from the Pribilof Islands, it also considers a camp on Killisnoo Island where those from Atka were held, along with Ward Lake, where those from smaller villages were incarcerated. Former inmates remember the poor and harsh conditions in the camps and the rampant health problems they …
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.
Rebel with a Cause: The Life of Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Empowerment, Heroism – real and perceived, Power of the past, Role of women
Biographical documentary of activist and redress researcher Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga by Janice D. Tanaka. Tanaka's mother, Grace Tanaka, was a close childhood friend of Herzig Yoshinaga's, and she juxtaposes her mother's more conventional Nisei life with Herzig's more rebellious path. Includes candid interviews with Herzig Yoshinaga's three children, husband Jack Herzig and many friends and others who knew her, in reviewing her life in a more-or-less chronological fashion from childhood, to wartime incarceration at Manzanar and Jerome , two early marriages—and divorces—that left her a single mother with three children, her life and work in New York after the war and her turn to activism, and her key role in the Redress Movement and coram nobis cases in partnership with husband Jack Herzig. In addition to the interviews with key figures in her life, Tanaka also did group interviews with friends and family members and had Herzig Yoshinaga revisit locations …
Redress (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Empowerment, Fulfillment
- Widely available
Documentary film on the Office of Redress Administration (ORA) based on interviews with former ORA staffers and Japanese American community members they worked with. In addition to an introduction that covers the hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 , Redress includes a segment on the incarceration of Japanese Latin Americans , and the ORA's difficulties in securing redress for that group.
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.
Caught in Between: What to Call Home in Times of War (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Fear of other, Hazards of passing judgment, Importance of community, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Available
Documentary film by Lina Hoshino that looks at parallels between Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Arab and Muslim Americans after 9/11 and at joint activism between the two groups in the months after 9/11.
Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Circle of life, Family – blessing or curse, Man against nature, Wisdom of experience
- Limited availability
Documentary film that follows a Japanese American farm family over the course of a year at their Central California farm.
Camp Amache: The Story of an American Tragedy (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Will to survive
- Available
A 2006 documentary film by Don Dexter about the American concentration camp located in southwest Colorado, where more than 7,000 Japanese Americans were held during World War II. Amache was one of ten camps established in 1942 to incarcerate over 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forced from their West Coast homes. The film mixes interviews and personal stories with historic and contemporary photos and footage of the camp and surrounding area. Some of the featured stories include journalist Bill Hosokawa , author Gil Asakawa, and John Hopper, a teacher at Granada High School, who has incorporated the story of Amache into his curriculum and started the Amache Preservation Society with his students.
Crystal City Pilgrimage, October 31 to November 3, 2019 (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Immigrant experience, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Video documentary of the 2019 Crystal City Pilgrimage that includes interviews with former internee attendees, highlights of speeches and performances at the various events, and footage of visits to the site of the camp and to Crystal City High School. Speakers and interviewees describe the circumstance of the World War II internment and the parallels with immigrant detention policies of the present and urge solidarity with those seeking to end those policies. There is no narrator.
A Hero's Hero (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Convention and rebellion, Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society, Rights - individual or societal
- Available
Documentary film on Nisei draft resister Yosh Kuromiya and his nephew, civil rights activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya, directed by Robert Shoji. The film begins with Shoji's first person narration of meeting Yosh Kuromiya and with scenes of Kuromiya, shot shortly before his 2018 passing, in which he discusses growing up in the San Gabriel Valley before the war and being forcibly removed with his family to the Heart Mountain , Wyoming, concentration camp, where he was among the young men who resisted the draft, subsequently serving time in prison. The film then follows him to the cemetery, where he visits the resting place of Kiyoshi, while recalling his life of activism. An audio interview of Kiyoshi continues the story of his role in the Civil Rights Movement and as founder of the Critical Path newsletter that provided crucial information about HIV/AIDS. The film ends with Shoji expressing gratitude for having met …