Japanese‐American Relocation and Internment: Films

Faced with a country that now doubted their loyalty following Pearl Harbor and struggling with their new situation, Japanese-American families turned to baseball as a way to handle their plight and find the strength to stand up for themselves.

Director, Linda Hattendorf, producers, Masa Yoshikawa, Linda Hattendorf - "Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of friendship and art" Quoted from website, http://www.thecatsofmirikitani.com/

Tells the story of the Japanese-American soldiers who fought for the United States in Europe and the Pacific while their families faced racism, discrimination and internment at home. They became liberators of Nazi-oppressed people in Italy and France, and served as interpreters, propaganda agents and combat intelligence gatherers against the Japanese in the Pacific area. In this film, a number of former soldiers recall their war-time experiences.

Set against the background of a controversial period in American history, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, this is the love story of an Irish-American man and a beautiful Japanese-American woman.

Americans, organized as the Fair Play Committee, refused to be drafted from the concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Ready to fight, but not before their rights as U.S. citizens were restored and families released. The largest organized resistance to incarceration, leading to the largest trial for draft resistance in U.S. history. Prosecuted as criminals, Japanese American leaders and veterans ostracized them as traitors. The resisters served two years in prison, and for the next 50 were written out of the official history of Japanese America.

Poignant documentary about an extraordinary woman, artist Estelle Ishigo, one of the few Caucasians to be interned with 110,000 Japanese Americans in 1942. When internment came, Ishigo refused to be separated from her Japanese-American husband, and lived with him for four years behind barbed wire in the desolate Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming. During internment, the artist recorded the rigors of camp life with unusual insight, depicting the internees' struggle to keep dignity and hope alive.

Lou Frizzell came to the Manzanar Relocation Center in 1943 to teach drama and music to the high school students who were interned during World War II. He wanted to make a difference and so it was through his music and plays he gave hope to these kids who were imprisoned behind barbed wire fences.

Through Toyo's camera, it portrays the stories and history of Japanese Americans in Manzanar War Relocation Center during WWII.

In the spring of 1942, more than 110,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry were uprooted from their lives and incarcerated in relocation camps. Their stories, along with those who refused to go, are told in this Oscar nominated film.