Browse > Media Type > Films and Video
295 articles
I'll Remember April (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Coming of age, Loss of innocence, Fear of other
- Available
Dramatic film directed by Bob Clark and written by Mark Sanderson set in April 1942 about four young boys who discover a Japanese sailor. One of the boys is Japanese American, and he and his family also prepare for their imminent forced removal and incarceration. Pat Morita plays the boy's grandfather.
The Idaho Homefront: Of Camps and Combat (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications
- Widely available
Documentary video written and produced by Jim Peck for Idaho Public Television that tells the story of the Minidoka camp in Idaho and of Japanese Americans who served in World War II from Idaho, both those in Minidoka and those born and raised in Idaho. The show was a follow up to an earlier documentary by Peck titled The Idaho Homefront: World War II that had included a mention of Minidoka and of the 442nd . Narrated by Sue Galligan, and featuring interviews with Hero Shiosaki, Roy Gikui, Robert Sims, Bethine Church, Fumiko Hayashida, and Toshi Ito. Funding for the show came in part from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WETA Public Broadcasting, and from Wal-Mart. The half-hour show premiered on Idaho public television stations on September 20, 2007.
If Tomorrow Comes (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Love and sacrifice, Evils of racism
- Available
Made for television movie that tells the story of a Romeo and Juliet type romance between a Nisei man and a white woman against the backdrop of World War II. Produced by Aaron Spelling Productions, "If Tomorrow Comes" debuted on CBS on December 7, 1971. It was directed by George McCowan from a teleplay by Lew Hunter and starred former child star Patty Duke opposite newcomer Frank Liu. The movie was originally titled "My Husband, the Enemy," with protests by the Asian American community leading to a name change.
In Time of War (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Circle of life, Displacement, Injustice, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- Widely available
Documentary film on the Japanese American experience in the Pacific Northwest including " voluntary evacuation ," forced removal and confinement, and the debate over military service. Produced by North By Northwest Entertainment for Whitworth College, the project was funded by a grant from the Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program .
Interactions (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Power of the past
- No availability
A 2000 film that chronicles the experiences of four high school students, who are given four days to find out about Japanese American teenagers in U.S. concentration camps during World War II. Equipped with a phone and a computer, Kiet, Christina, Miguel and Lluvia interview former inmates and visit the site of one of the camps, while contemplating the meaning of the wartime incarceration and its relevance to the present.
Invisible Citizens: Japanese Americans (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
- Limited availability
Early documentary film that highlights the experiences of Japanese Americans during and after World War II through profiles of six Japanese Americans from around the country.
Island Roots (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Change versus tradition, Rebirth
- Widely available
Short documentary film on the Filipino American community on Bainbridge Island, Washington from the migration of the first immigrants in the late 1920s to the present day. Many came to Bainbridge to serve as farm laborers on strawberry farms run by Japanese Americans. During World War II, when Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from Bainbridge and the entire West Coast, many turned their farms over to their Filipino American farmhands to mange in their absence. As a result, many Japanese American farmers were able to return to intact farms after the war. Some Filipino Americans were able to use this as a jumping off point to owning their own farms after the war. The film concludes with the restoration of the Filipino American community hall on Bainbridge and the return of the Strawberry Festival that serve as the center of the community in the present.
Issei: The First Generation (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Role of women, Wisdom of experience
- Available
Documentary film featuring interviews with Issei who speak in Japanese about their lives. Filmed in 1983 and shown on television in the San Francisco Bay area in 1984, the film remained largely unseen for the next thirty years until it was restored and reissued in 2013. It remains one of the only films to feature Issei voices on the wartime removal and incarceration and on Japanese American history in general.
Jimmy Murakami-Non Alien (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Expression through art, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film about the expatriate Nisei artist and animator Jimmy T. Murakami, focusing on his and his family's wartime incarceration at Tule Lake and his return to Tule Lake as part of the 2009 pilgrimage . The film mixes live action footage set in the film's present with animated segments recalling the eight-year-old Jimmy's experiences in camp and also notes his formative years, his Hollywood career, and his life as an expatriate in Ireland. The film was produced in Ireland by Loop Line Film and directed by Sé Merry Doyle. It has screened in numerous film festivals in both Europe and the United States.
Journey of Honor (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real and perceived
- Widely available
Documentary film produced and directed by Stuart Yamane centering on a trip by a group of Hawai'i Nisei veterans of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team to Italy some fifty-five years after they fought there during World War II. In documenting the trip, Yamane reconnects with his late and estranged father Masakichi, a World War II veteran, who had served with some of the men on the trip. Led by columnist and military history buff Bob Jones, the trip includes stops at Pietrasanta, where they the men are honored in a Liberation Day ceremony and take part in the unveiling of a statue honoring Sadao Munemori ; Mt. Fologorito, where they have a reunion with the Alpini, the Italian Mountain Corps who guided Allied troops; the American Cemetary and Memorial in Nettuno; and, finally, Monte Cassino, a mountain that was the site of one of their most …
Journey to Washington: On the Trail of Senator Daniel Inouye Japanese American Pioneer (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Patriotism – positive side or complications, Empowerment
- Available
Japanese-made video on the life of Daniel Inouye , American war hero and United States Senator from Hawai'i. Journey to Washington aired in selected television markets in both the U.S. and Japan.
Justice Betrayed (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice
- No availability
Documentary film on the internment of Japanese Americans from Hawai'i produced in 1992 by the Honolulu Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Justice Betrayed includes interviews with two Japanese Americans whose fathers were interned (Sandra Takahata, the daughter of artist George Hoshida , and Akira Otani, son of businessman Matsujiro Otani ); Tokushige and Mitsue Nakahara, boat builder brothers who were themselves interned; and Violet Ishii Hayashi, a woman from originally from Hawai'i who was on the West Coast at time of the mass expulsion and incarceration and ended up at Poston ; and legal scholar Eric Yamamoto and historian Franklin Odo. In addition to outlining the Hawai'i story, the film also covers Executive Order 9066 and the West Coast story as well as the issues with John DeWitt's Final Report that led to the corm nobis cases in the 1980s.
Justice Now! Reparations Now! (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Importance of community, Power of the past
- Limited availability
Documentary film on the Redress Movement focusing on the contributions of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (NCRR), which produced it. The film provides a brief overview of the wartime incarceration, with a focus on resistance by Japanese Americans in and out of confinement. It then traces the roots of NCRR to 1960s social movements and the rise of redress as an issue in Japanese American communities in the 1970s, outlining NCRR's "grass roots" orientation. Footage from the Los Angeles hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians—which NCRR helped to organize—and well as excerpts of speeches by Norman Mineta and Robert Matsui in support of redress legislation are also included. The film culminates with footage of NCRR's July 1987 trip to Washington, DC, to lobby for redress legislation and with the passage and signing what would become the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 . Alan Kondo produced …
Kash: The Legend and Legacy of Shiro Kashino (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Available
Feature length documentary film by Vince Matsudaira that tells the story of Shiro "Kash" Kashino (1922–97), a decorated combat veteran of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , whose legacy had been tarnished by a court-martial stemming from a fight while in France.
Korematsu and Civil Liberties (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Documentary
- Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary video focusing on the collision of security concerns and civil liberties as illustrated by theWorld War II roundup of Japanese Americans and the Korematsu Supreme Court case.
Leap of Faith: How Enmanji Temple Was Saved (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Importance of community, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
- Available
Documentary short film by Lina Hoshino about a group of white Christian teenagers who guard a California Buddhist temple during World War II in an effort to deter vandalism.
Legacy of the Nisei Veterans: WWII Stories of the 100th/442nd and Military Intelligence Service (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real and perceived, Role of men
- Limited availability
Documentary film made up of interviews with ten Nisei World War II veterans from the San Francisco Bay area. Short segments of the interviews are organized by topic in more or less chronological fashion, with the occasional insertion of still photographs from the period. Segments include the reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the arrest of Issei leaders, Executive Order 9066 and its aftermath, early recruits to the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the formation of the 442nd and the loyalty questionnaire episode of early 1943, the battlefield experiences of the MIS in the Pacific and the 442nd in Europe, and the role of the MIS in occupation Japan. The film ends with a brief summary of each man's life after the war. One unusual element in the inclusion of Takeshi "Gish" Endo's story of being recruited out of Heart Mountain by the British Political Warfare Mission, and doing translation …
Little Tokyo U.S.A. (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Thrillers
- Evils of racism, Fear of other
- Limited availability
Notorious 1942 Hollywood movie that depicts Japanese American leaders in Los Angeles as being part of a Japanese spy ring and that actively advocates the expulsion and incarceration of Japanese Americans using actual documentary footage.
Looking Like the Enemy (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Evils of racism, Role of men, Heroism – real and perceived
- Widely available
Documentary film on the unique experiences of Japanese American soldiers in Asian wars: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The 52-minute film was made by Karen L. Ishizuka and Robert A. Nakamura in conjunction with the exhibition Fighting for Tomorrow: Japanese Americans in America's Wars at the Japanese American National Museum and screened in the exhibition gallery.
Lost LA: Descanso Gardens (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Chaos and order, Nature as beauty, Power of the past
- Widely available
Special episode of the Lost LA public television series that tells the story of Descanso Gardens, a botanical garden in La Cañada Flintridge, California, that is run by Los Angeles County. The wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans plays a key role in the history of the garden.
Lost LA: From Little Tokyo to Crenshaw (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Empowerment, Importance of community, Power of the past, Social mobility
- Widely available
Episode of the Lost LA public television series that looks at the return of Japanese Americans to Los Angeles Little Tokyo after their wartime incarceration and the postwar evolution of the Seinan or Crenshaw community, where Japanese Americans and African Americans lived side-by-side for several decades. Host Nathan Masters interviews Japanese American National Museum curator and collection manager Kristen Hayashi about the return to Little Tokyo and subsequent move to the suburbs; dancer and activist Nobuko Miyamoto , who grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood after the war; Vietnam veteran and activist Nick Nagatani, who was one of the founders of Yellow Brotherhood, a social service organization in the community; and Joy Simmons, a local activist and arts advocate who grew up with many Japanese Americans in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lost LA: Three Views of Manzanar: Adams, Lange, Miyatake (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Expression through art, Power of the past
- Widely available
Episode of the Lost LA public television series that looks at the Manzanar photography of Ansel Adams , Dorothea Lange and Toyo Miyatake . Series host Nathan Masters visits the Manzanar National Historic Site , where he discusses the various approaches of the trio with Park Ranger Rose Masters and contemporary photographer Paul Kitagaki and visits the sites of some of their iconic photographs. Masters then visits the Toyo Miyatake Studios in San Gabriel, California, where he meets Alan Miyatake, the grandson of Toyo.
The Lost Village of Terminal Island (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Displacement, Immigrant experience, Importance of community, Power of the past
- Widely available
A 2007 documentary film directed by David Meltzer about Terminal Island , once home for a large and prosperous Japanese American fishing community located near the Port of Los Angeles, California. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 , nearly 3,000 Japanese immigrants and their families who lived at Terminal Island were forced from their homes and into government concentration camps. Most of the original inhabitants of this tight-knit Japanese American village would never return. This film tells the story of childhood memories of growing up on a once idyllic Terminal Island as well as the painful experiences of suspicion, interrogation and incarceration (most Terminal Islanders were sent to the camp at Manzanar ) that the community suffered following the passage of Executive Order 9066. The film also traces the former residents' continuing identification with Terminal Island, noting the reunions that began in 1971 and climaxing with …
The Magic of Ordinary Days (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama, Romance
- Beauty of simplicity, Love and sacrifice, Role of women
- Available
Made-for-television movie under the Hallmark Hall of Fame banner about the arranged marriage of an educated urban woman carrying an illegitimate child and a kindly farmer. The film includes a subplot about a friendship between the woman and two Japanese American sisters from Amache who are among the farmworkers.
Main Street, Wyoming: Heart Mountain (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Episode of the local PBS program Main Street, Wyoming that focuses on Heart Mountain . Originally produced and aired in 1994, it was repackaged with a brief new opening as part of the Main Street, Wyoming Classics series in 2006. Featuring on-camera host Deborah Hammons, the episode includes three segments: : an extended interview with Paul Tsuneishi on his incarceration experience and subsequent military service; a profile of Kaz Uriu, one of the only Heart Mountain inmates to later settle in Wyoming as a farmer, based on an interview with his daughter; and local efforts to build a memorial at the site—which was dedicated in July 1978—featuring interviews with local residents. Produced by Wyoming Public Television, it was funded by the Wyoming Council for the Humanities ad Kennecott Energy. It has been made available online as part of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.