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295 articles

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Here, in America? (film)

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

Short documentary film that presents highlights from the Assembly on Wartime Relocation & Internment of Civilians, held in San Francisco in April 2005. The event included the public testimony of persons of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry about the World War II era internment/incarceration and persons of Arab, Muslim or South Asian descent about post-9/11 detentions. In addition to excepts of the testimonies, the film includes historical background on the World War II detentions along with historical photographs and footage. Testimonies highlighted include Buddy Fujii (statement read by Bill Sato); Victor Kimura; Libia Yamamoto; Art Shibayama; Angelica Higashide (statement read by Naomi Quinones); Doris Berg Nye (statement read by Carole Eiserloh); Ted Eckardt (statement read by Bruce Donald); Constanza Ilacqua Foran; Al Bronzini; John Christgau; Lawrence DiStasi; Yaman Hamdan; and Xavier Becerra.

Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice
Available

A 2004 documentary film about the life of Art Shibayama, a Japanese Peruvian who was forcibly taken from his home in Peru in 1944 when he was thirteen years old, and interned in a Department of Justice camp in Crystal City , Texas, for the duration of World War II. This film explores the lesser-known history of the Japanese Latin American detention, where over 2,000 Latin Americans were essentially kidnapped from their countries and interned in American government camps, to be used as political pawns between countries. Using first-person narrative and archival footage, the film shows how despite their traumatic experiences and wrongful treatment, Shibayama and other Latin Americans have been denied redress that was awarded to Japanese Americans in 1988 for their loss of civil liberties and forced wartime incarceration. Directed by Casey Peek and produced by Irum Shiekh.

Hito Hata: Raise the Banner (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Immigrant experience
Limited availability

Landmark feature film produced by Visual Communications (VC), a Los Angeles based non-profit in 1980. Centering on the life story of an Issei man, Hito Hata was likely the first dramatic feature film about Asian Americans by Asian Americans since the silent film era.

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.

Honor and Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Heroism - real or perceived, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Available

A 2013 documentary film about Japanese American Kibei war hero Roy Matsumoto and his family during World War II, as told through the eyes of his daughter Karen. A decorated linguist with the Military Intelligence Service who was a part of Merrill's Marauders, an American guerrilla unit in Burma, Matsumoto served even though his parents and sisters were living in Hiroshima and three of his Nisei brothers were ultimately conscripted into the Japanese army.

Honor Bound: A Personal Journey (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Heroism - real or perceived, Power of the past
Available

Documentary film that tells the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team through the story of one soldier, Haruo Howard "Howe" Hanamura, and his daughter, television reporter Wendy Hanamura, who travel to Europe in October 1944 for 50th anniversary ceremonies of the liberation of Bruyeres and Biffontaine by the 442nd. The film was produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) and KPIX, San Francisco, where Wendy Hanamura was a news reporter. After debuting on KPIX on March 5, 1995, it went on to be shown on over 100 PBS stations.

Honoring Alameda's Japanese American History (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Importance of community, Immigrant experience, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
Limited availability

Conventional documentary on the history of the Japanese American community in Alameda, California, that is more or less equally divided between the prewar years and wartime incarceration/aftermath. Perhaps due to sponsorship by the Buddhist Temple of Alameda and the Buena Vista United Methodist Church, there is a focus on the history and activities of those two institutions throughout. While the first half is specifically on the Japanese American community in Alameda and is thus somewhat unique, the section on the wartime removal and incarceration is more general and thus repeats information that can be found elsewhere.

Honouliuli: Hawai'i's Hidden Internment Camp (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past, Injustice, Evils of racism
Widely available

Documentary short film on the Honouliuli Internment Camp in central Ō'ahu produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i. Interviews and other footage from this film were later incorporated into a broader documentary film, The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i . Ryan Kawamoto wrote, directed, and edited both films.

Hyakunen no monogatari (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Love and sacrifice, Role of women
Available

Japanese television drama—whose English title is 100 Years —that follows the fortunes of four generations of women over the course of the twentieth century. The three-part drama first aired in Japan on TBS on August 28 to 30, 2000, and was subsequently shown on Japanese language TV stations in the United States. The first segment begins in 1920 and ends in the late 1930s, the second begins in 1949 and covers the early postwar years, and the third takes place in 2000. Each segment stars Nanako Matsushima, who plays Aya Togura, born in 1901 in the first segment, her daughter in the second, and her great-granddaughter in the third. The second segment includes two major Japanese American characters, both of whom were incarcerated in American concentration camps.

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.

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