Feature films about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans include:
Title | Release Year | Producer(s) |
---|---|---|
442: For the Future [3] | 1997 | Patricia Kinaga |
442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity [4] [5] | 2010 | Junichi Suzuki |
After Silence: Civil Rights and the Japanese American Experience [6] | 2003 | Louis Shelton |
All We Could Carry [7] | 2011 | Steven Okazaki |
America at Its Best: Legacy of Two Nisei Patriots [8] | 2001 | Vince Matsuidaira, Nisei Veterans Committee of Seattle |
And Then They Came for Us [9] | 2017 | Abby Ginzberg and Ken Schneider (filmmaker) |
The Art of Gaman: The Story Behind the Objects [10] | 2010 | Rick Quan |
Beyond Barbed Wire [11] | 1997 | Steve Rosen, Terri DeBono |
Camp Amache: The Story of an American Tragedy [12] | 2007 | Don and Sandy Dexter |
The Cats of Mirikitani | 2006 | Linda Hattendorf |
Caught in Between: What to Call Home in Times of War [13] | 2004 | Lina Hoshino |
A Challenge to Democracy | 1943 | |
ALTERNATIVE FACTS: The Lies of Executive Order 9066 [14] [15] | 2019 | Jon Osaki and Lauren Kawana |
Children of the Camps [16] | 1999 | |
Citizen Tanouye [17] | 2005 | Robert Horsting, Craig Yahata |
The Color of Honor: The Japanese American Soldier in WWII [18] | 1987 | Loni Ding |
Conscience and the Constitution [19] | 2000 | Frank Abe |
Days of Waiting | 1990 | Steven Okazaki |
Dear Miss Breed [20] | 2000 | Veronica Ko |
Democracy Under Pressure: Japanese Americans and World War II [21] | 2000 | Jeffrey S. Betts |
A Divided Community [22] | 2012 | Momo Yashima |
Double Solitaire | 1997 | Corey Ohama |
Emi [23] | 1979 | Frank Nesbitt, Michael Toshiyuki Ono |
Encounter with the Past: American Japanese Internment in World War II [24] | 1980 | Tak Shindo |
Enemy Alien [25] | 2011 | Konrad Aderer |
The Empty Chair[ citation needed ] | 2014 | Greg Chaney |
Family Gathering | 1988 | |
Farewell to Manzanar | 1973 | |
A Flicker in Eternity [26] | 2013 | Ann Kaneko, Sharon Yamato |
Forced Out: Internment and the Enduring Damage to California Cities and Towns [27] | 2003 | KVIE |
Forsaken Fields [28] | 2001 | Midori Sperandeo |
From a Silk Cocoon [29] | 2006 | Satsuki Ina |
Fumiko Hayashida: The Woman Behind the Symbol [30] | 2009 | Lucy Ostrander |
Furusato: The Lost Village of Terminal Island [31] | 2005 | David Meltzer |
Gila River and Mama: The Ruth Mix Story [32] | 2011 | Claire Mix |
Guilty by Reason of Race [33] | 1972 | NBC |
Heart Mountain: Three Years in an Internment Camp [34] | 1994 | Dianne Fukami |
Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story [35] | 2004 | Casey Peek, Irum Shiekh |
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige | 1992 | Rea Tajiri |
The Idaho Homefront: Of Camps and Combat [36] | 2007 | Jim Peck |
In Time Of War [37] | 2004 | Andrea Palpant |
Interactions [38] | 2000 | Justin Lin |
Japanese Relocation | 1942 | Office of War Information |
Jimmy Murakami—Enemy Alien | 2010 | Sé Merry Doyle |
Justice Betrayed | 1992 | Gordon Lee, Honolulu JACL |
The Legacy of Heart Mountain | 2014 | David Ono and Jeff MacIntyre |
Life Interrupted: Reunion and Remembrance in Arkansas [39] | 2006 | Japanese American National Museum |
Manzanar | 1972 | Robert A. Nakamura |
Manzanar Fishing Club | 2012 | Cory Shiozaki |
Meeting at Tule Lake | 1994 | Scott T. Tsuchitani |
Most Honorable Son [40] | 2007 | Bill Kubota |
The Music Man of Manzanar [41] | 2005 | Brian T. Maeda |
Nebraska's Nisei | 1998 | University of Nebraska |
The Nisei: The Pride and the Shame | 1965 | CBS |
Nisei Soldier: Standard Bearer for an Exiled People | 1983 | Loni Ding |
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story | 2000 | Eric Paul Fournier |
Passing Poston | 2008 | Joe Fox |
A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the United States | 1992 | John de Graaf |
Pilgrimage | 2006 | Tad Nakamura |
Prejudice and Patriotism: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in the Military Intelligence Service of WWII | 1998 | |
Prisoners and Patriots: The Untold Story of Japanese Internment in Santa Fe | 2011 | Neil H. Simon |
Rabbit in the Moon | 1999 | Emiko Omori |
Relocation, Arkansas[ citation needed ] | 2015 | Vivienne Schiffer |
Remembering Manzanar | 2004 | National Park Service |
Rescued By Fate | 2014 | Christopher HK Lee |
Return to the Valley: Japanese American Experience After WWII | 2003 | Scott Gracheff |
Searchlight Serenade | 2012 | Claire Reynolds |
Shikata Ga Nai: An Inconvenient American [42] | 2019 | Lauren Yanase |
The Silent Glory | 2000 | Zed Merrill |
Something Strong Within | 1994 | Japanese American National Museum |
Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story | 2004 | John Esaki |
Take Me Home: A Child's Experience of Internment | 2005 | David Tanner, Andrea Palpant |
Tanforan: From Race Track to Assembly Center | 1994 | Dianne Fukami |
Time of Fear | 2004 | Sue Williams |
To Be Takei | 2014 | |
Topaz | 1945 | |
Topaz | 1988 | KUED |
Toyo's Camera: Japanese American History During WWII | 2009 | Junichi Suzuki |
Unfinished Business | 1985 | Steven Okazaki |
The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i | 2012 | Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i |
When You're Smiling: The Deadly Legacy of Internment | 1999 | Janice D. Tanaka |
Winter in My Soul | 1986 | Bob Nellis, KTWO |
Without Due Process: A Documentary about America's Concentration Camps | 2001 | Brian Beanblossom |
Valor With Honor [43] | 2008 | Burt Takeuchi |
Visible Target | 1985 | Cris Anderson, John de Graaf |
Yankee Samurai | 1985 | Katriel Schory |
Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice [44] | 1993 | Pat Saunders, Rea Tajiri |
Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one of the smaller internment camps. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California's Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, approximately 230 miles (370 km) north of Los Angeles. Manzanar means "apple orchard" in Spanish. The Manzanar National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States, was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites.
During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), mostly in the western interior of the country. Approximately two-thirds of the detainees were United States citizens. These actions were initiated by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, following Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam, the Philippines, and Wake Island in December 1941. Before the war, about 127,000 Japanese Americans lived in the continental United States, of which about 112,000 lived on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei and Sansei. The rest were Issei immigrants born in Japan, who were ineligible for citizenship. In Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised more than one-third of the territory's population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were incarcerated.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was the only refugee camp set up in the United States for refugees from Europe. The agency was created by Executive Order 9102 on March 18, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was terminated June 26, 1946, by order of President Harry S. Truman.
Farewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. The book describes the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family before, during, and following their relocation to the Manzanar internment camp due to the United States government's internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It was adapted into a made-for-TV movie in 1976 starring Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy, James Saito, Pat Morita, and Mako.
The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody and Powell, was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted during World War II from their local communities in the West Coast Exclusion Zone by the executive order of President Franklin Roosevelt.
The Gila River War Relocation Center was an American concentration camp in Arizona, one of several built by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during the Second World War for the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. It was located within the Gila River Indian Reservation near the town of Sacaton, about 30 mi (48.3 km) southeast of Phoenix. With a peak population of 13,348, it became the fourth-largest city in the state, operating from May 1942 to November 16, 1945.
Minidoka National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the western United States. It commemorates the more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center during the Second World War. Among the inmates, the notation 峰土香 or 峯土香 was sometimes applied.
The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an American concentration camp in which Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come to the United States from Japan, called Nikkei were incarcerated. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, ordering people of Japanese ancestry to be incarcerated in what were euphemistically called "relocation centers" like Topaz during World War II. Most of the people incarcerated at Topaz came from the Tanforan Assembly Center and previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The camp was opened in September 1942 and closed in October 1945.
The Jerome War Relocation Center was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeastern Arkansas, near the town of Jerome in the Arkansas Delta. Open from October 6, 1942, until June 30, 1944, it was the last American concentration camp to open and the first to close. At one point it held as many as 8,497 detainees. After closing, it was converted into a holding camp for German prisoners of war. Today, few remains of the camp are visible, as the wooden buildings were taken down. The smokestack from the hospital incinerator still stands.
The Rohwer War Relocation Center was a World War II Japanese American concentration camp located in rural southeastern Arkansas, in Desha County. It was in operation from September 18, 1942, until November 30, 1945, and held as many as 8,475 Japanese Americans forcibly evacuated from California. Among the inmates, the notation "朗和" was sometimes applied. The Rohwer War Relocation Center Cemetery is located here, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
On February 19, 1942, shortly after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the forced removal of over 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast and into internment camps for the duration of the war. The personal rights, liberties, and freedoms of Japanese Americans were suspended by the United States government. In the "relocation centers", internees were housed in tar-papered army-style barracks. Some individuals who protested their treatment were sent to a special camp at Tule Lake, California.
The following article focuses on the movement to obtain redress for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and significant court cases that have shaped civil and human rights for Japanese Americans and other minorities. These cases have been the cause and/or catalyst to many changes in United States law. But mainly, they have resulted in adjusting the perception of Asian immigrants in the eyes of the American government.
Robert Akira Nakamura is a filmmaker and teacher, sometimes referred to as "the Godfather of Asian American media." In 1970 he cofounded Visual Communications (VC) the oldest community-based Asian Pacific American media arts organization in the United States.
Togo "Walter" Tanaka was an American newspaper journalist and editor who reported on the difficult conditions in the Manzanar camp, where he was one of 110,000 Japanese Americans who had been relocated after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The Manzanar Children's Village was an orphanage for children of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during World War II as a result of Executive Order 9066, under which President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States. Contained within the Manzanar concentration camp in Owens Valley, California, it held a total of 101 orphans from June 1942 to September 1945.
Estelle Ishigo, née Peck, was an American artist known for her watercolors, pencil and charcoal drawings, and sketches. During World War II she and her husband were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. She subsequently wrote about her experiences in Lone Heart Mountain and was the subject of the Oscar winning documentary Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo.
Ralph Lazo was the only known non-spouse, non-Japanese American who voluntarily relocated to a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. His experience was the subject of the 2004 narrative short film Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story.
Mary Kageyama Nomura is an American singer of Japanese descent who was relocated and incarcerated for her ancestry at the Manzanar concentration camp during World War II and became known as The songbird of Manzanar.
Mary Mon Toy was a Japanese American actress, showgirl, and secretary. She is best known for her role in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong as Minnie Ho.