Browse > Point-of-View > Told from the perspective of Nisei who were children when their families moved from the West Coast prior to the forced removal
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Before They Take Us Away (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Desire to escape, Evils of racism, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary film on " voluntary evacuation ," built around interviews with Japanese Americans whose families were among the roughly 5,000 who left the West Coast restricted area prior to the forced removal of Japanese Americans. After providing background on the prewar context and beginning of World War II, the bulk of the film focuses on the experiences of the families, most of whom moved to Utah or Colorado where they faced much hardship and discrimination, while also retaining their freedom. The film also specifically notes the case of Keetley Farms , a Nikkei settlement in Utah. The film is narrated in the first-person by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, who also reflects on her own family's wartime experience. The interviews are augmented by voice actors reading quotes from key officials and newspaper accounts from the time.