Browse > Genre > Drama

41 articles

1
2

Ho'onani Makuakane (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Power of the past, Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Quest for discovery
Widely available

Episode of the Hawaii Five-0 TV series from 2013 that featured a Japanese American internment-related storyline.

American (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama, War
Heroism – real and perceived, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Wisdom of experience
Widely available

Short narrative film starring George Takei as a Nisei veteran and Japanese American National Museum docent named Clinton Nakamoto. While on duty one day at the museum, he meets a woman with a young daughter and starts to give them a tour. The woman mentions that her grandfather had fought in the "422" and shows Clinton a picture of him on her phone. The picture sends Clinton back to the 1942, recalling his anger at the forced removal and later of serving in the 442nd with the grandfather, who was killed in the rescue of the Lost Battalion . He takes her to visit the Go for Broke memorial, where they find his name on it. On the way home on the bus, he strikes up a friendship with a young Muslim boy.

The First Battle: The Battle for Equality in War-Time Hawaii (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, Drama
Limited availability

A 2006 film by Tom Coffman about the multi-racial group of civic and military leaders in World War II Hawai'i that monitored race relations and supported Hawai'i's large Japanese American community. After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941 , the Committee for Interracial Unity and the Morale Section led by Chinese American YMCA Secretary Hung Wai Ching and Japanese American school principal Shigeo Yoshida , worked to protect the civil liberties of the people of Japanese ancestry living in Hawai'i, which ultimately led to the decision against a mass removal of Japanese Americans from the islands. In addition to interviews with some of the key figures and archival footage and stills, The First Battle also recreates several key scenes with actors playing key historical figures such as Ching, Yoshida, and Hawai'i FBI head Robert Shivers . Major funders included Central Pacific Bank, the Gerbode Foundation, the Hawaii Pacific …

Farewell to Manzanar Educational Kit (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Memoir, Drama, History
Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Power of the past
Limited availability

In 2003, the Farewell to Manzanar Education Initiative distributed 10,000 copies of the Farewell to Manzanar Educational Kit to California public schools and public libraries. The kit consists of the book, Farewell to Manzanar and Related Readings (1998), a teaching guide for the book (1998), a VHS cassette of the Farewell to Manzanar made-for-television movie (1976) with an additional 35-minute classroom version, and a video study guide (2002). Separate elements of the kit are available for purchase (except for the video study guide).

Day of Independence (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Coming of age, Family - blessing or curse, Self-reliance
Available

A 2003 short dramatic film about one Japanese American family's World War II experience in an American concentration camp, told through the narration of a young baseball player, whose life is traumatically altered by the forced removal and his father's decision to expatriate back to Japan. The screenplay is based on the real-life experiences of playwright and executive producer Tim Toyama's family and adapted from a play Toyama wrote entitled "Independence Day".

Forgotten Valor (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real or perceived
No availability

Dramatic film about a 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran who was among those awarded the Medal of Honor in 2000, but who refuses to attend the ceremony and subsequently disappears.

Eagle Against the Sun (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Loss of innocence, Coming of age, Evils of racism
Limited availability

A dramatic short film by John Akahoshi centering on a 17-year-old Japanese American high school girl and the impact the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has on her life.

Stand Up For Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Injustice, Coming of age
Available

Short film that dramatizes the story of Ralph Lazo , a Los Angeles high school student of Mexican and Irish descent, who voluntarily chose to go to Manzanar to support his Nisei friends and protest the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans.

On the Go: Little Tokyo (film)

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

Segment of Jack Linkletter's On the Go television show set in Little Tokyo that focuses on the wartime incarceration and its aftermath. Linkletter interviews three Japanese Americans on the sidewalks of Little Tokyo: Eiji Tanabe (referred to only as "Mr. Tanabe"), a Nisei businessman who had been active in the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) before and after the war; Mr. Shimizu, the Issei owner of Asahi Shoe Store; and John Aiso , then a municipal court judge. In Tanabe's segment, the longest, he describes his work for the JACL (which is not referred to by name), the loss of his hotel businesses—for which he received token compensation through the Evacuation Claims Act —and his " voluntary evacuation " to his hometown of Spokane, before returning to Los Angeles and starting a travel business. Shimizu describes in halting English his arrest on the night of December 7 and subsequent internment …

One of Many (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Injustice, Disillusionment and dreams, Patriotism - positive side or complications
Widely available

Short dramatic film written and directed by Byron Yokomi centering on George Miyamoto, a young man at one of the Arkansas concentration camps facing major life decisions brought on by the loyalty questionnaire crisis. Yokomi made the film as an MFA student at Florida State University.

Only the Brave (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
War, Drama
Death – inevitable or tragedy, Power of the past, Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

Feature film that dramatizes the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in France and its aftermath.

The Blue Jay (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Evils of racism, Importance of community, Will to survive
Available

Narrative short film set in Poston centering on Sam and Ayako Shigeta, a young Nisei couple with a newborn baby, and their evolving relationship with Pohache, a Native American staff person.

When You Leave (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama, Short
Evils of racism, Loss of innocence, Family - blessing or curse
Limited availability

Dramatic short film mostly set in Minidoka about a small family that is split on the prospect of leaving camp. As the film begins, Yukio, a young man, returns from a stint doing farm labor on the outside. Sullen and quiet, he refuses to tell his family about his experience. But when his sister and mother announce that they have received clearance to leave, he is unexpectedly reluctant. To try to make the camp seem more like home, he begins building furniture. But when he builds a box for his sister's baby shoes, the crisis comes into the open.

A Song for Manzanar (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Displacement, Female roles
Widely available

Dramatic narrative short film directed by Phil Emerson and Kazuko Golden centering on Sachie and Hiroko, two sisters we first meet in Hiroshima as Sachie, the elder, prepares to leave for the U.S. A few years later, Sachie is incarcerated in Manzanar with her husband Yoshizo and two young children and struggles to communicate with Hiroko, who remains in Hiroshima. Her efforts to enlist the help of a guard to send and receive letters to Japan is juxtaposed with Yoshizo's efforts to get the family released to Chicago .

Harusame Spring Rain (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Disillusionment and dreams, Heartbreak of betrayal, Losing hope
Widely available

Narrative short film by Jose De Vega set during World War II centering on Naomi, a young Nisei dancer, whose bitterness about her wartime exclusion and incarceration saps her love of dance. In an unnamed American concentration camp, she encounters a child who dreams of becoming a professional dancer and who asks Naomi to teach her.

Sanga moyu (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Family - blessing or curse, Patriotism - positive side or complications
Limited availability

Japanese television series that dramatized the Japanese American experience. Sanga moyu (Burning Mountains and Rivers) was a 1984 series produced by NHK, Japan's national broadcasting network. Consisting of 51 episodes that ran 45 minutes each, the series debuted on January 8, 1984, and ran through December 23, 1984. The story was based on the novel Futatsu no sokoku (Two Homelands) by Toyoko Yamasaki and focused on the Amo family of Los Angeles whose three Nisei sons chose different paths during World War II while the family was incarcerated at Manzanar : one who volunteers for the U.S. Army and fights in Europe, another who serves in the Military Intelligence Service during the war crimes trials and American occupation, and a third who is trapped in Japan at the outbreak of war and drafted into the Japanese army. Japanese American organizations in the continental United States objected to the portrayal of …

1
2