Examines the treatment of Japanese-Americans during WW II, and its relevance…
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Groundbreaking and haunting, this film is a poetic composition of recorded history and non-recorded memory. Filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And like so many who were in the camps, Tajiri’s family wrapped their memories of that experience in a shroud of silence and forgetting.
Ruminating on the difficult nature of representing the past – especially a past that exists outside traditional historic accounts – Tajiri blends interviews, memorabilia, a pilgrimage to the camp where her mother was interned, and the story of her father, who had been drafted pre-Pearl Harbor and returned to find his family’s house removed from its site.
Throughout, she surveys the impact of images (real images, desired images made real, and unrealized dream images). The film draws from a variety of sources: Hollywood spectacle, government propaganda, newsreels, memories of the living, and sprits of the dead, as well as Tajiri’s own intuitions of a place she has never visited, but of which she has a memory. More than simply calling attention to the gaps in the story of the Japanese American internment, this important film raises questions about collective history – questions that prompt Tajiri to daringly re-imagine and re-create what has been stolen and what has been lost.
No reviews available.
Credits and citation support are not available for this title yet.
A MARC record for this title is not available yet.
Distributor subjects
Asian American; Cinema Studies; History; Racism; Video ArtKeywords
Internment,Japanese Americans,Japanese-Americans,WWII,World War II,media studies,media literacy,Pearl Harbor,Asian American History,American History,propaganda,Asian American,Cinema Studies,History,Racism,Video Art; "History and Memory "; Women Make Movies
00:00:11.565 --> 00:00:14.315
(birds chirping)
00:00:25.663 --> 00:00:27.996
(whooshing)
00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:27.760
- [Rea] I don't know where this came from,
00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:30.370
but I just had this fragment, this picture
00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:31.883
that's always been in my mind.
00:01:33.470 --> 00:01:36.365
My mother, she's standing at a faucet,
00:01:36.365 --> 00:01:40.259
and it's really hot outside, and she's filling this canteen,
00:01:40.259 --> 00:01:43.350
and the water's really cold,
00:01:43.350 --> 00:01:46.460
and it feels really good. (water trickling)
00:01:46.460 --> 00:01:48.110
And outside, the sun is just so hot,
00:01:48.110 --> 00:01:51.570
it's just beating down, and there's this dust
00:01:51.570 --> 00:01:53.450
that gets in everywhere,
00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:55.423
and they're always sweeping the floors.
00:01:56.820 --> 00:02:01.820
(jazzy music) (water trickling)
00:02:13.414 --> 00:02:14.940
I remember when my sister went through this phase
00:02:14.940 --> 00:02:17.790
in high school of following this guy she had a crush on
00:02:17.790 --> 00:02:19.940
home from school everyday through the park.
00:02:24.334 --> 00:02:25.290
Rather than talk to him, she told me,
00:02:25.290 --> 00:02:27.490
she preferred, instead, to take his picture.
00:02:46.211 --> 00:02:47.960
One day, she finally went up to him and persuaded him
00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:48.883
to pose for her.
00:02:57.275 --> 00:02:59.508
- Do you mind? - I really don't
00:02:59.508 --> 00:03:01.574
wanna do this. - Do you mind?
00:03:01.574 --> 00:03:04.074
Off to the, down a little bit?
00:03:07.296 --> 00:03:08.865
Well, maybe it would be better.
00:03:08.865 --> 00:03:09.701
That's fine, just-- - why don't you just take
00:03:09.701 --> 00:03:11.563
a shot on me? - Look to your,
00:03:11.563 --> 00:03:14.920
well, actually, look to your left, if you don't mind.
00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:16.750
Yes, and just up a little bit more,
00:03:16.750 --> 00:03:18.390
maybe look at little happier.
00:03:18.390 --> 00:03:20.579
No, look a little bit more dejected.
00:03:20.579 --> 00:03:23.860
Yeah, that's better, and look down, really down.
00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:24.693
Yes. - Nah,
00:03:24.693 --> 00:03:26.719
I don't wanna look down.
00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:28.643
I can't believe this, what,
00:03:28.643 --> 00:03:29.569
I mean. - Just a little bit more
00:03:29.569 --> 00:03:30.565
to the left. - I can't believe
00:03:30.565 --> 00:03:32.597
I'm doing this, what is this anyway?
00:03:32.597 --> 00:03:33.943
Just take the picture. - Here.
00:03:38.174 --> 00:03:40.030
- [Rea] She had a huge box with pictures of movie stars
00:03:40.030 --> 00:03:42.540
that she was always poring over.
00:03:42.540 --> 00:03:44.410
She had inherited them from our aunt,
00:03:44.410 --> 00:03:47.650
who had passed away, and somehow, his photo became enshrined
00:03:47.650 --> 00:03:49.481
with the others.
00:03:49.481 --> 00:03:51.981
(jazzy music)
00:04:12.168 --> 00:04:13.550
The strange thing, of course, when I thought about it later,
00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:15.573
was that the photos were of white people.
00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:38.300
I often wondered how the movies influenced our lives,
00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:40.310
and I often wondered where my sister's habit
00:04:40.310 --> 00:04:42.610
of observing others from a distance came from.
00:04:52.873 --> 00:04:57.873
(wind whooshing) (rain trickling)
00:05:00.614 --> 00:05:01.990
- [Man] I just never understood what happened,
00:05:01.990 --> 00:05:03.570
and what you heard about,
00:05:03.570 --> 00:05:07.070
and what Grandma and Grandpa talked about, but.
00:05:10.228 --> 00:05:12.728
(jazzy music)
00:05:14.254 --> 00:05:15.420
- [Rea] There are things which have happened
00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:17.130
in the world while there were cameras watching,
00:05:17.130 --> 00:05:18.430
things we have images for.
00:05:26.039 --> 00:05:29.206
(rousing jazzy music)
00:05:34.528 --> 00:05:37.778
(jet engines whirring)
00:05:39.116 --> 00:05:42.078
(guns blasting)
00:05:42.078 --> 00:05:44.578
(men yelling)
00:05:48.699 --> 00:05:50.320
- [Announcer] This is a real attack, not a maneuver.
00:05:50.320 --> 00:05:52.670
The Japanese are bombing Pearl Harbor.
00:05:52.670 --> 00:05:55.210
Please keep in your homes, do not go on the streets.
00:05:55.210 --> 00:05:56.470
This is a real attack.
00:05:56.470 --> 00:05:57.860
- [Rea] There are other things which have happened
00:05:57.860 --> 00:05:59.720
while there were no cameras watching,
00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:03.281
which we restage in front of cameras to have images of.
00:06:03.281 --> 00:06:04.749
(engines whirring)
00:06:04.749 --> 00:06:08.832
(shouting in a foreign language)
00:06:14.746 --> 00:06:16.694
- Men, man your battle stations.
00:06:16.694 --> 00:06:17.553
God bless you.
00:06:17.553 --> 00:06:20.386
(patriotic music)
00:06:22.451 --> 00:06:24.303
(jets whirring)
00:06:24.303 --> 00:06:27.053
(bombs blasting)
00:06:29.326 --> 00:06:31.993
(guns blasting)
00:06:33.091 --> 00:06:33.924
- [Man] My first knowledge of the attack
00:06:33.924 --> 00:06:37.250
was when I was awakened by the sound of bombs dropping
00:06:37.250 --> 00:06:40.190
and the roaring of aircraft all around us.
00:06:40.190 --> 00:06:43.020
I ran out on the lanai, and saw immediately
00:06:43.020 --> 00:06:45.190
they were Japanese planes,
00:06:45.190 --> 00:06:46.970
and there was this fella standing next to me,
00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:49.280
and said, "It certainly looks real, doesn't it?"
00:06:49.280 --> 00:06:51.147
And I said, "Yes, I'm afraid it is."
00:06:52.080 --> 00:06:53.686
I ran over to my offices--
00:06:53.686 --> 00:06:55.710
- [Rea] There are things which have happened
00:06:55.710 --> 00:06:58.450
for which the only images that exist are in the minds
00:06:58.450 --> 00:07:00.823
of the observers present at the time.
00:07:03.340 --> 00:07:04.320
While there are things which have happened for which
00:07:04.320 --> 00:07:05.640
there have been no observers,
00:07:05.640 --> 00:07:07.390
except for the spirits of the dead.
00:07:09.341 --> 00:07:11.758
(soft music)
00:07:22.345 --> 00:07:25.856
- [Father] Because of the law that existed at that time,
00:07:25.856 --> 00:07:29.860
Japanese could not own any property,
00:07:29.860 --> 00:07:33.080
and so, it wasn't possible for mother to buy a house
00:07:33.980 --> 00:07:37.633
or buy any property, and so she bought the house in my name.
00:07:49.181 --> 00:07:53.997
While I was in the Army, in Camp Shelby, in the 442nd,
00:07:54.860 --> 00:07:59.860
I got word that the house, which I owned,
00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:02.530
was condemned because the United States Government
00:08:02.530 --> 00:08:04.130
was taking it over for the Navy.
00:08:07.200 --> 00:08:10.530
So my sister asked for permission to go there.
00:08:10.530 --> 00:08:12.520
She was denied permission,
00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:14.540
and so I asked for permission to go there,
00:08:14.540 --> 00:08:15.953
and I was denied permission.
00:08:21.512 --> 00:08:23.060
What happened eventually is that the house,
00:08:23.060 --> 00:08:24.690
all of a sudden, disappeared,
00:08:24.690 --> 00:08:27.980
whether it was stolen or destroyed or whatever,
00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:31.020
we'll never know, 'cause all of a sudden,
00:08:31.020 --> 00:08:32.570
the house wasn't there anymore.
00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:35.392
(birds chirping)
00:08:35.392 --> 00:08:37.256
- When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
00:08:37.256 --> 00:08:41.799
our West Coast became a potential combat zone.
00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:44.500
Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons
00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:46.260
of Japanese ancestry.
00:08:46.260 --> 00:08:48.570
Two thirds of them, American citizens.
00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:50.561
One third, aliens.
00:08:50.561 --> 00:08:54.860
We knew that some among them were potentially dangerous,
00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:56.610
but no one knew what would happen
00:08:56.610 --> 00:09:00.050
among this concentrated population if Japanese forces
00:09:00.050 --> 00:09:03.504
should try to invade our shores.
00:09:03.504 --> 00:09:07.691
(driving patriotic music)
00:09:07.691 --> 00:09:08.694
♪ We're one for all ♪
00:09:08.694 --> 00:09:09.696
♪ And all for one ♪
00:09:09.696 --> 00:09:10.529
♪ Behind the man ♪
00:09:10.529 --> 00:09:11.472
♪ Behind the gun ♪
00:09:11.472 --> 00:09:12.595
♪ And now that we're in it ♪
00:09:12.595 --> 00:09:14.166
♪ We're going to win it ♪
00:09:14.166 --> 00:09:15.623
- [Betsy] Well, I was at home, it was Sunday,
00:09:15.623 --> 00:09:17.850
and our neighbor boy comes running in the house.
00:09:17.850 --> 00:09:20.210
He was a soldier, and he came on furlough,
00:09:20.210 --> 00:09:22.990
and he came to say goodbye to my father,
00:09:22.990 --> 00:09:27.550
and he started sort of, teary, he got teary,
00:09:27.550 --> 00:09:30.198
and kinda cried, and my father said,
00:09:30.198 --> 00:09:33.557
"Be strong," (mumbling) what that means,
00:09:33.557 --> 00:09:37.214
"Be strong, and you'll be all right," he said, you know.
00:09:37.214 --> 00:09:39.220
He was given them courage and I still remember that.
00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:40.770
He was telling them not to worry,
00:09:40.770 --> 00:09:44.340
everything will be okay, and that was it, that day.
00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:45.790
I remember.
00:09:45.790 --> 00:09:49.050
- [Rea] In 1942, my mother, her family,
00:09:49.050 --> 00:09:52.100
and my father's family were interned,
00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:54.780
while my father was serving in the U.S. Army.
00:09:54.780 --> 00:09:58.400
(rousing patriotic music)
00:09:58.400 --> 00:09:59.405
♪ We're one for all ♪
00:09:59.405 --> 00:10:00.413
♪ And all for one ♪
00:10:00.413 --> 00:10:01.246
♪ Behind the man ♪
00:10:01.246 --> 00:10:02.411
♪ Behind the gun ♪
00:10:02.411 --> 00:10:03.648
♪ And now that we're in it ♪
00:10:03.648 --> 00:10:04.689
♪ We're going to win it ♪
00:10:04.689 --> 00:10:05.690
♪ We can't lose a minute ♪
00:10:05.690 --> 00:10:06.693
♪ There's work to be done ♪
00:10:06.693 --> 00:10:07.699
♪ We'll win it ♪
00:10:07.699 --> 00:10:08.751
♪ We'll win it ♪
00:10:08.751 --> 00:10:10.037
♪ United we stand ♪
00:10:10.037 --> 00:10:11.150
- [Rea] Letter from my Uncle Shinkitchi,
00:10:11.150 --> 00:10:14.810
from Holland, March 15, 1991.
00:10:14.810 --> 00:10:19.790
Dear Rea, it's about 50 years ago, 2500 weeks,
00:10:19.790 --> 00:10:21.300
and I have probably thought about it
00:10:21.300 --> 00:10:23.401
at least once a week.
00:10:23.401 --> 00:10:24.234
("God Bless America")
00:10:24.234 --> 00:10:25.940
The incarceration, my volunteering
00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:30.940
for the 444nd combat team, getting shot, wounded in Italy,
00:10:31.109 --> 00:10:33.860
returning to the States and finding that the attitude
00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.780
toward the Japanese had not noticeably changed.
00:10:36.780 --> 00:10:38.160
In fact, I think it was even worse
00:10:38.160 --> 00:10:39.860
because of the war in the Pacific.
00:10:42.970 --> 00:10:44.320
- [Mother] Is this canteen?
00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:48.419
They didn't have a canteen in Salinas,
00:10:48.419 --> 00:10:52.434
assembly center. - They had it here.
00:10:52.434 --> 00:10:55.568
- [Mother] They had nothing, they had it on post, and,
00:10:55.568 --> 00:10:58.382
I don't remember this. - Well.
00:10:58.382 --> 00:10:59.400
- [Mother] Oh my goodness, I don't remember this.
00:11:01.753 --> 00:11:02.876
("My Country Tis Of Thee")
00:11:02.876 --> 00:11:05.394
♪ My country tis of thee ♪
00:11:05.394 --> 00:11:07.477
♪ Sweet land of liberty ♪
00:11:07.477 --> 00:11:08.750
- [Yoshiko] Papers were all full of, you know,
00:11:08.750 --> 00:11:13.620
like scary story that the Japanese fishermen
00:11:13.620 --> 00:11:17.890
were signaling to the Japanese submarines
00:11:17.890 --> 00:11:20.232
all this was just like war hysteria,
00:11:20.232 --> 00:11:23.530
like all the farmers had their farms
00:11:23.530 --> 00:11:26.230
near these telephone lines, and you know.
00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:27.660
- Right. - All this stuff
00:11:27.660 --> 00:11:29.450
they made up.
00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:31.200
- [Rea] There are only a few photographs
00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.280
from camp that my family owns,
00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:34.730
since cameras were forbidden.
00:11:46.651 --> 00:11:48.350
There was a change in the attitude toward us.
00:11:48.350 --> 00:11:51.920
Nothing outwardly hostile, just a kind of curiosity,
00:11:51.920 --> 00:11:53.974
wondering what was going to happen to us.
00:11:53.974 --> 00:11:56.680
Whereas before, we were mostly ignored and slightly
00:11:56.680 --> 00:11:59.730
out of focus, the war brought us clearly into view
00:11:59.730 --> 00:12:01.293
and made us sharply defined.
00:12:08.590 --> 00:12:10.010
My mom used to have this bird,
00:12:10.010 --> 00:12:11.410
this little wooden carved bird
00:12:11.410 --> 00:12:13.233
that was inside her jewelry box.
00:12:14.210 --> 00:12:15.770
I used to ask her if I could play with it,
00:12:15.770 --> 00:12:16.603
but she kept saying,
00:12:16.603 --> 00:12:17.737
"No, no, no, Grandma gave me that.
00:12:17.737 --> 00:12:18.867
"Put that back."
00:12:22.497 --> 00:12:23.510
25 years later, I was sitting in a room
00:12:23.510 --> 00:12:26.590
inside the Natioanl Archives, going through a box
00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:28.390
that contained hundreds of pictures.
00:12:29.800 --> 00:12:31.940
Suddenly, I came across a picture of my grandmother,
00:12:31.940 --> 00:12:34.783
seated in a classroom, taken while she was in camp.
00:12:36.350 --> 00:12:37.980
I turned it over, and the caption read,
00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:41.573
Bird Carving Class, Camp 2, 1942.
00:12:47.322 --> 00:12:50.343
I began searching for our history, my own history,
00:12:51.520 --> 00:12:53.913
because I had known all along that the stories
00:12:53.913 --> 00:12:56.663
I had heard were not true, and parts had been left out.
00:12:58.142 --> 00:13:00.400
(wind whooshing)
00:13:00.400 --> 00:13:02.907
I remember having this feeling growing up,
00:13:02.907 --> 00:13:05.133
that I was haunted by something,
00:13:06.970 --> 00:13:09.533
that I was living within a family full of ghosts.
00:13:11.300 --> 00:13:13.583
There was this place that they knew about.
00:13:15.660 --> 00:13:18.993
I had never been there, yet, I had a memory for it.
00:13:20.980 --> 00:13:24.323
I could remember a time of great sadness before I was born.
00:13:25.280 --> 00:13:27.553
We had been moved, uprooted,
00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:30.963
we had lived with a lot of pain.
00:13:33.260 --> 00:13:35.510
I had no idea where these memories came from,
00:13:36.552 --> 00:13:38.304
yet I knew the place.
00:13:38.304 --> 00:13:41.054
(wind whooshing)
00:13:50.010 --> 00:13:51.797
- [Man] I was looking for a man named Komoko.
00:13:53.999 --> 00:13:55.150
- [Man] Komoko, sure, I remember him,
00:13:55.150 --> 00:13:58.120
Japanese farmer, never had a chance.
00:13:58.120 --> 00:13:59.280
- [Man] Oh?
00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:01.543
- Got here in 41, just before Pearl Harbor.
00:14:02.870 --> 00:14:04.110
Three months later, they shipped them off
00:14:04.110 --> 00:14:05.343
to a relocation center.
00:14:07.178 --> 00:14:08.011
Tough.
00:14:09.340 --> 00:14:10.173
- Ah.
00:14:18.020 --> 00:14:19.530
- [Rea] How come you asked her?
00:14:19.530 --> 00:14:21.510
- [Niece] 'Cause I was curious,
00:14:21.510 --> 00:14:22.770
'cause I wanted to know, and sometimes,
00:14:22.770 --> 00:14:24.870
they might mention something in relation to that,
00:14:24.870 --> 00:14:26.780
and you ask them questions, 'cause you wanna know more,
00:14:26.780 --> 00:14:28.470
'cause it's, you know, you're curious,
00:14:28.470 --> 00:14:31.446
but she always said that she didn't remember,
00:14:31.446 --> 00:14:32.446
she didn't remember.
00:14:35.046 --> 00:14:36.805
(woman laughing)
00:14:36.805 --> 00:14:38.075
- [Rea] Ah, come on.
00:14:38.075 --> 00:14:38.908
- [Mother] But that's the truth, I don't remember it.
00:14:38.908 --> 00:14:40.199
- [Rea] You'll tell me--
00:14:40.199 --> 00:14:42.549
- [Mother] No, it's really, you know something?
00:14:43.770 --> 00:14:44.993
There's so many things I've forgotten,
00:14:44.993 --> 00:14:46.593
because look at how many years it's been,
00:14:47.824 --> 00:14:49.577
and when I hear people on television,
00:14:49.577 --> 00:14:51.390
how they felt and everything,
00:14:51.390 --> 00:14:52.310
I don't remember any of that stuff.
00:14:52.310 --> 00:14:54.896
All I remember is if you, you know,
00:14:54.896 --> 00:14:59.896
when I saw this woman who had lost her mind, you know.
00:15:01.325 --> 00:15:02.547
She was a beautiful woman, uh-huh,
00:15:02.547 --> 00:15:05.583
a beautiful woman, a beautiful young, you know,
00:15:07.060 --> 00:15:10.850
and I thought, you know, why did this happen?
00:15:10.850 --> 00:15:13.250
Well, (mumbling) you go out of your mind,
00:15:13.250 --> 00:15:16.130
so you just put those things out of your mind, you know?
00:15:16.130 --> 00:15:18.230
Sure, when you start thinking, how did we get in here
00:15:18.230 --> 00:15:21.582
and all that, you're good, and I thought to myself,
00:15:21.582 --> 00:15:22.832
I wonder how many people.
00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:25.160
- There's something buried up there.
00:15:25.160 --> 00:15:28.213
I, yeah, wildflowers.
00:15:29.154 --> 00:15:31.293
That means a grave.
00:15:31.293 --> 00:15:32.738
I suppose you knew that.
00:15:32.738 --> 00:15:35.155
(soft music)
00:15:37.179 --> 00:15:40.096
(melancholy music)
00:16:05.371 --> 00:16:08.270
- When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
00:16:08.270 --> 00:16:11.503
our West Coast became a potential combat zone.
00:16:12.471 --> 00:16:14.460
Now the actual migration got underway.
00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:16.380
- [Rea] We were allowed to take what we could carry
00:16:16.380 --> 00:16:18.440
to the concentration camps.
00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:20.420
We burned a lot, and the valuables,
00:16:20.420 --> 00:16:22.373
we packed into one room.
00:16:22.373 --> 00:16:25.140
We rented the house to a young couple from the Midwest,
00:16:25.140 --> 00:16:26.980
who worked for the War.
00:16:26.980 --> 00:16:29.650
I'm sure our locked room was quickly broken into,
00:16:29.650 --> 00:16:31.420
and the valuables taken.
00:16:31.420 --> 00:16:33.020
- [Milton] On behalf of America's war effort--
00:16:33.020 --> 00:16:35.460
- [Rea] Much later, in camp, we heard that our house
00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:37.830
was stolen, literally uprooted and moved
00:16:37.830 --> 00:16:39.023
to another location.
00:16:40.155 --> 00:16:42.587
To this day, we have no trace of it.
00:16:42.587 --> 00:16:44.623
(rousing music)
00:16:44.623 --> 00:16:49.623
♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪
00:16:50.673 --> 00:16:55.629
♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪
00:16:55.629 --> 00:17:00.141
♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪
00:17:00.141 --> 00:17:03.891
♪ His truth goes marching on ♪
00:17:06.421 --> 00:17:09.921
- [Man] And that government of the people,
00:17:11.028 --> 00:17:13.444
by the people, for the people
00:17:16.006 --> 00:17:18.673
shall not perish from the Earth.
00:17:19.887 --> 00:17:22.804
(women vocalizing)
00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:29.454
- [Rea] 1942, Salinas, California.
00:17:29.454 --> 00:17:32.640
A 20 year old Japanese-American woman and her family
00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:36.840
pack one suitcase each, sell their remaining possessions,
00:17:36.840 --> 00:17:40.320
and are moved to live in the Salinas Rodeo Grounds Barracks.
00:17:40.320 --> 00:17:43.090
They live here until they are moved again by train
00:17:43.090 --> 00:17:46.580
to Poston, Arizona, to live in part of an Indian Reservation
00:17:46.580 --> 00:17:48.463
converted into a concentration camp.
00:17:51.784 --> 00:17:54.867
(rhythmic hammering)
00:18:14.041 --> 00:18:17.011
- This is the assembly center. - Yeah.
00:18:17.011 --> 00:18:18.153
This is a park right here.
00:18:19.280 --> 00:18:21.560
- [Mother] They have a little monument made there,
00:18:21.560 --> 00:18:23.447
that thing that was Japanese. - Oh.
00:18:24.930 --> 00:18:26.980
- [Mother] Actually, the next place there,
00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:29.060
next place is the assembly, the trees are right over there,
00:18:29.060 --> 00:18:31.769
that's the place. - Right in here,
00:18:31.769 --> 00:18:33.030
right in here. - To the right.
00:18:33.030 --> 00:18:35.578
I mean, to the-- - To the left.
00:18:35.578 --> 00:18:38.330
- Is this Lake Street? - Right in here.
00:18:38.330 --> 00:18:40.190
- [Mother] No, no, not yet.
00:18:40.190 --> 00:18:42.030
- [Woman] She's talking about the assembly center
00:18:42.030 --> 00:18:44.052
for students-- - To the left.
00:18:44.052 --> 00:18:47.110
See where the gumtrees are to the left, way over there,
00:18:47.110 --> 00:18:49.410
that's the assembly center. - Yeah, over there, too.
00:18:49.410 --> 00:18:50.410
All through in here.
00:18:51.601 --> 00:18:52.434
- [Mother] It wasn't this close.
00:18:52.434 --> 00:18:54.010
It was further down.
00:18:54.010 --> 00:18:56.510
(light music)
00:18:58.911 --> 00:18:59.863
- [Rea] I don't think they have students here.
00:18:59.863 --> 00:19:01.450
They have all the-- - I don't think so.
00:19:01.450 --> 00:19:03.553
- [Rea] So we went in here for graduation.
00:19:03.553 --> 00:19:05.020
- You did? - Uh-huh.
00:19:05.020 --> 00:19:06.820
- [Mother] Yeah, it's right in here.
00:19:07.925 --> 00:19:09.675
Assembly Center, yep.
00:19:11.737 --> 00:19:14.512
- [Rea] Shellwood Park and all that.
00:19:14.512 --> 00:19:15.679
Right in here.
00:19:18.195 --> 00:19:19.740
- [Rea] The horse stable at Santa Anita Assembly Center,
00:19:19.740 --> 00:19:22.200
where we were first quartered, was just that:
00:19:22.200 --> 00:19:25.100
a quickly swept out and whitewashed horse stable.
00:19:25.100 --> 00:19:27.313
The five of us took the place for one horse.
00:19:29.220 --> 00:19:31.098
- [Mother] I don't remember how we--
00:19:31.098 --> 00:19:31.931
- Because Dad-- - I don't know
00:19:31.931 --> 00:19:33.470
how we got there because we couldn't,
00:19:33.470 --> 00:19:34.970
we had to sell our car and everything,
00:19:34.970 --> 00:19:36.840
so I don't even know how we got there
00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:40.365
and I don't know, all I know is just a brief train ride
00:19:40.365 --> 00:19:42.853
as we got to Poston, you know?
00:19:43.830 --> 00:19:46.310
And the blinds were down and all that,
00:19:46.310 --> 00:19:48.290
but that's all I remember.
00:19:48.290 --> 00:19:49.758
- [Rea] You don't remember
00:19:49.758 --> 00:19:51.190
getting off the train or anything?
00:19:51.190 --> 00:19:53.230
- [Mother] No, not quite except that I remember
00:19:53.230 --> 00:19:54.620
kind of trucks and stuff,
00:19:54.620 --> 00:19:57.050
and I remember going after our mattresses, and I thought,
00:19:57.050 --> 00:19:58.093
how awful, you know?
00:20:08.937 --> 00:20:11.050
- [Rea] Well, it's sort of funny because going to Poston
00:20:11.050 --> 00:20:12.870
was sort of like, remind me of that movie,
00:20:12.870 --> 00:20:14.183
Bad Day at Black Rock?
00:20:16.546 --> 00:20:17.491
- [Mother] Remember how we,
00:20:17.491 --> 00:20:18.704
I don't remember how-- - Because Dad--
00:20:18.704 --> 00:20:19.706
- [Mother] See, I don't know how we got there,
00:20:19.706 --> 00:20:21.700
because we couldn't, we had to sell our car and everything,
00:20:21.700 --> 00:20:23.160
see, I don't know how we got there,
00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:26.615
and I don't know, all I know, just a brief train ride
00:20:26.615 --> 00:20:29.143
as we got to Poston, you know,
00:20:30.150 --> 00:20:33.269
and the blinds were down and all that.
00:20:33.269 --> 00:20:34.368
And the day we were on was stifling,
00:20:34.368 --> 00:20:36.430
and the shades were drawn.
00:20:36.430 --> 00:20:40.793
- [Rea] You couldn't look out and know where you were going?
00:20:40.793 --> 00:20:41.671
- [Mother] No.
00:20:41.671 --> 00:20:43.176
- [Rea] They didn't tell you?
00:20:43.176 --> 00:20:44.655
- [Mother] We had no inkling.
00:20:44.655 --> 00:20:45.952
No, they wouldn't tell us.
00:20:45.952 --> 00:20:47.599
- Why are the blinds down?
00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:49.430
- So we won't know where we're going.
00:20:49.430 --> 00:20:53.416
- [Rea] I began searching for a history, my own history,
00:20:53.416 --> 00:20:56.730
because I had known all along that the stories I'd heard
00:20:56.730 --> 00:20:59.437
were not true, and parts had been left out.
00:21:01.576 --> 00:21:05.325
(static crackling)
00:21:05.325 --> 00:21:07.711
(dramatic orchestral music)
00:21:07.711 --> 00:21:08.544
- [Narrator] The Way Ahead.
00:21:08.544 --> 00:21:09.850
Where does it lead?
00:21:09.850 --> 00:21:11.905
- [Mother] We would apply for apartments,
00:21:11.905 --> 00:21:16.250
we would look in the paper, and we'd call them,
00:21:16.250 --> 00:21:18.557
and then we'd be talking, and she'd say,
00:21:18.557 --> 00:21:19.940
"And what is your race?"
00:21:19.940 --> 00:21:23.850
Being so darn honest, we said, "Japanese Americans."
00:21:23.850 --> 00:21:27.040
They would say, "Sorry, there's no vacancy."
00:21:27.040 --> 00:21:30.536
And I remember saying, "And you call yourself an American?"
00:21:30.536 --> 00:21:32.001
and I hung up, you know.
00:21:32.001 --> 00:21:33.184
I used to be so mad.
00:21:33.184 --> 00:21:35.790
- [Rea] When I got there, I found out that it was built
00:21:35.790 --> 00:21:38.030
on a Native American Indian Reservation,
00:21:38.030 --> 00:21:41.350
the Colorado River Tribal Indian Reservation.
00:21:41.350 --> 00:21:45.660
This woman there told me that she can remember
00:21:45.660 --> 00:21:47.320
a time when the government came in,
00:21:47.320 --> 00:21:50.460
and overnight, took over a section of the reservation
00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:52.832
and started to build the camps, these barracks
00:21:52.832 --> 00:21:56.180
out of this really cheap, unseasoned pine,
00:21:56.180 --> 00:21:58.913
and finished it off with this tar paper.
00:22:00.110 --> 00:22:01.820
Later on, they tried to offer the barrack
00:22:01.820 --> 00:22:04.130
back to the Native Americas as compensation
00:22:04.130 --> 00:22:05.393
for the use of the land.
00:22:06.734 --> 00:22:09.990
I began searching because I felt lost, ungrounded,
00:22:09.990 --> 00:22:12.230
somewhat like a ghost that floats over terrain,
00:22:12.230 --> 00:22:14.450
witnessing others living their lives, and yet,
00:22:14.450 --> 00:22:15.793
not having one of its own.
00:22:25.510 --> 00:22:27.610
Going to Poston, I had to stay in a little town
00:22:27.610 --> 00:22:29.410
next door called Parker.
00:22:29.410 --> 00:22:31.900
It's where my mom got off the train in 1942,
00:22:31.900 --> 00:22:33.063
on her way to camp.
00:22:36.060 --> 00:22:39.000
When Spencer Tracy gets off the train in Black Rock,
00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.340
he's an outsider, who might make the town
00:22:41.340 --> 00:22:44.000
remember something they wanna forget,
00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.110
the murder of a Japanese-American man
00:22:46.110 --> 00:22:47.503
the day after Pearl Harbor.
00:22:48.469 --> 00:22:49.843
Oh, you're here to see the camps.
00:22:50.950 --> 00:22:53.310
When I arrived in Parker, I reminded them of a history
00:22:53.310 --> 00:22:54.970
they wanted to forget,
00:22:54.970 --> 00:22:56.860
the internment of the Japanese-Americans,
00:22:56.860 --> 00:22:59.410
on an Indian Reservation next door,
00:22:59.410 --> 00:23:02.238
a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
00:23:02.238 --> 00:23:04.503
- After that sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Bataan.
00:23:05.560 --> 00:23:06.780
- Komoko make you mad?
00:23:06.780 --> 00:23:08.375
- It's the same thing.
00:23:08.375 --> 00:23:11.330
Loyal Japanese Americans, that's a laugh.
00:23:11.330 --> 00:23:12.163
They're all mad dogs.
00:23:12.163 --> 00:23:14.060
What about Corregidor, the death march?
00:23:15.987 --> 00:23:18.364
- What does Komoko have to do with Corregidor?
00:23:18.364 --> 00:23:19.260
(water trickling)
00:23:19.260 --> 00:23:21.490
- [Rea] In Parker, the history of the camps is something
00:23:21.490 --> 00:23:23.290
that everyone there wants to forget.
00:23:24.360 --> 00:23:25.350
- [Helen] I can't believe it.
00:23:25.350 --> 00:23:27.490
She said, I can't believe what you tell me,
00:23:27.490 --> 00:23:29.890
and she says, our government wouldn't do that,
00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:32.100
and I said, well, I'm sorry.
00:23:32.100 --> 00:23:35.620
My folks are in the camp, what proof do you want?
00:23:35.620 --> 00:23:37.230
And she still couldn't believe it.
00:23:37.230 --> 00:23:38.720
- [Rea] But as soon as they see an Asian face,
00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:39.553
they remember.
00:23:41.935 --> 00:23:42.768
- He figured he had cheated them,
00:23:42.768 --> 00:23:45.004
because you gotta have water to raise anything.
00:23:45.004 --> 00:23:47.303
There never was any water on Adobe Flat.
00:23:49.810 --> 00:23:50.863
Komoko dug a well.
00:23:52.340 --> 00:23:56.158
He must've gone down 60 feet. - Yeah, plenty of water.
00:23:56.158 --> 00:23:58.163
I made Smith pretty sore.
00:24:00.104 --> 00:24:02.100
He didn't like Japs anyway.
00:24:02.100 --> 00:24:03.069
- [Rea] That was the thing about the Japanese:
00:24:03.069 --> 00:24:06.390
they took barren land and brought water to it.
00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:08.040
They bought up all the land that no one wanted
00:24:08.040 --> 00:24:09.390
and made things grow on it.
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:13.727
They prospered and the white farmers hated them,
00:24:13.727 --> 00:24:14.560
and eventually, they were driven
00:24:14.560 --> 00:24:16.283
out of California after Pearl Harbor.
00:24:17.360 --> 00:24:19.210
(water trickling) The irony is they did it again
00:24:19.210 --> 00:24:20.920
in Poston, they brought water to the land,
00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:21.993
and made things grow.
00:24:32.725 --> 00:24:34.585
Do you remember the school, what the school looked like?
00:24:34.585 --> 00:24:37.134
- [Mineko] Well, they were, let's see,
00:24:37.134 --> 00:24:39.693
they were built out of adobe bricks,
00:24:40.841 --> 00:24:44.947
and I guess they were built by, you know,
00:24:45.900 --> 00:24:48.163
people living there, by the parents.
00:24:51.709 --> 00:24:55.370
- [Father] The youngest sister was about six years old,
00:24:55.370 --> 00:25:00.370
I think, she kinda helped me on the tour of the area,
00:25:02.092 --> 00:25:05.950
she got a little bit frightened when we saw a guard
00:25:05.950 --> 00:25:07.740
patrolling, just the natural reaction,
00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:10.760
just sort of, kinda falls a little bit,
00:25:10.760 --> 00:25:12.060
she kinda tightened up a little bit,
00:25:12.060 --> 00:25:15.607
and I think it's something that becomes inherent
00:25:16.690 --> 00:25:18.740
in the children, I guess.
00:25:18.740 --> 00:25:20.880
I'm not sure how they, adults all took it,
00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:22.749
I think they took it probably
00:25:22.749 --> 00:25:26.167
with a little less physical reaction,
00:25:26.167 --> 00:25:28.067
but the resentment must've been there,
00:25:31.274 --> 00:25:34.127
because it's impossible to accept being placed
00:25:38.166 --> 00:25:40.833
behind barbed wires for no reason at all.
00:25:48.398 --> 00:25:49.653
- [Rea] So in one structure,
00:25:49.653 --> 00:25:52.120
there was one family.
00:25:52.120 --> 00:25:53.889
- [Mother] One unit, see.
00:25:53.889 --> 00:25:54.872
- [Rea] One unit, yeah, what's the difference
00:25:54.872 --> 00:25:55.705
between the unit-- - Well, okay,
00:25:55.705 --> 00:25:58.350
there was a long barrack, and each barrack
00:25:58.350 --> 00:26:01.510
was partitioned into four living quarters.
00:26:01.510 --> 00:26:02.440
- [Rea] Oh.
00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:04.170
And then there was a wall between each?
00:26:04.170 --> 00:26:05.520
- [Mother] Yeah, mm-hmm.
00:26:05.520 --> 00:26:07.170
- [Rea] And so each one of those was a unit?
00:26:07.170 --> 00:26:09.465
Okay, so you were in one unit.
00:26:09.465 --> 00:26:11.700
What was it called again?
00:26:11.700 --> 00:26:13.490
What it was, it was like you had a--
00:26:13.490 --> 00:26:15.070
- [Mother] Oh, I remember my address.
00:26:15.070 --> 00:26:19.907
It was, let's see, Block 213, 11A was our unit.
00:26:23.490 --> 00:26:26.097
It was Block 213, and then 11A.
00:26:27.970 --> 00:26:30.020
- I never seen Komoko in my life, honest.
00:26:32.080 --> 00:26:34.300
- [Rea] Spencer Tracy makes a search throughout the film
00:26:34.300 --> 00:26:36.253
to find a Japanese American man.
00:26:37.345 --> 00:26:41.853
He never appears, not even a picture or a photograph.
00:26:44.409 --> 00:26:45.754
- [Man] And the Jap came running out,
00:26:45.754 --> 00:26:46.587
his clothes were all burned.
00:26:48.072 --> 00:26:49.250
And then Smith shot him.
00:26:49.250 --> 00:26:50.990
- [Rea] Komoko's disappearance from Black Rock
00:26:50.990 --> 00:26:53.670
was like our disappearance from history.
00:26:53.670 --> 00:26:55.909
His absence is his presence.
00:26:55.909 --> 00:26:57.124
(speaking foreign language)
00:26:57.124 --> 00:26:59.560
Somehow, I could identity with his search,
00:26:59.560 --> 00:27:01.640
the search for an ever-absent image,
00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:04.563
and the desire to create an image where there are so few.
00:27:19.850 --> 00:27:22.289
- [Mother] That's why I guess, for years and years and years
00:27:22.289 --> 00:27:26.270
you know, I used to have dreams about living temporarily
00:27:26.270 --> 00:27:27.884
in Chicago and all that,
00:27:27.884 --> 00:27:29.230
and I wasn't the only one.
00:27:29.230 --> 00:27:30.981
Other people said the same thing.
00:27:30.981 --> 00:27:32.120
They said, dreams. - Really?
00:27:32.120 --> 00:27:32.953
- [Mother] Uh-huh.
00:27:32.953 --> 00:27:33.786
- [Rea] Oh, that's interesting.
00:27:33.786 --> 00:27:34.690
- [Mother] Yeah.
00:27:34.690 --> 00:27:36.448
- [Rea] That they were gonna be taken away,
00:27:36.448 --> 00:27:37.870
or they were just-- - No, no, just that,
00:27:37.870 --> 00:27:39.640
I was living here in Chicago,
00:27:39.640 --> 00:27:40.817
and I had my family and everything,
00:27:40.817 --> 00:27:43.130
and here, I'm dreaming these dreams,
00:27:43.130 --> 00:27:45.790
that you know, this is just temporary, you know?
00:27:47.180 --> 00:27:48.013
And I used to have funny dreams
00:27:48.013 --> 00:27:49.617
about going to California back and all that,
00:27:49.617 --> 00:27:51.267
you know, funny dreams like that.
00:28:01.109 --> 00:28:02.390
- [Nephew] This week's movie is Come See the Paradise,
00:28:02.390 --> 00:28:05.000
about a Japanese American family interned
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.483
in U.S. concentration camps during World War II.
00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:10.780
Actually, this one is kind of personal for me,
00:28:10.780 --> 00:28:12.670
'cause my grandmother, her family,
00:28:12.670 --> 00:28:15.760
and the family of my grandfather, who was in the U.S. Army,
00:28:15.760 --> 00:28:17.110
were all in the camps, too.
00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:18.993
- [Jack] Can I kiss you?
00:28:18.993 --> 00:28:20.010
- [Nephew] I don't have any good stories, though,
00:28:20.010 --> 00:28:22.710
because my grandparents never really told me about it.
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:26.340
I was thinking of throwing in some impressive facts,
00:28:26.340 --> 00:28:29.180
like about the memo President Franklin Roosevelt received
00:28:29.180 --> 00:28:31.750
before creating the camps that explained why
00:28:31.750 --> 00:28:34.500
they weren't necessary, or about how no Japanese
00:28:34.500 --> 00:28:37.610
were ever convicted of anti-U.S. sabotage,
00:28:37.610 --> 00:28:39.843
but I thought they more bore you.
00:28:39.843 --> 00:28:41.347
Did they?
00:28:41.347 --> 00:28:43.603
- [Jack] What I can never be, not ever.
00:28:43.603 --> 00:28:45.691
It's Japanese.
00:28:45.691 --> 00:28:47.400
I couldn't-- - I also thought I might get
00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:50.540
on Dennis Quaid's case for playing the virtuous white guy
00:28:50.540 --> 00:28:54.110
who audiences can relate to, and of course, gets the girl.
00:28:54.110 --> 00:28:55.932
- [Jack] And then your eyes,
00:28:55.932 --> 00:28:57.583
to work and touch it.
00:28:59.048 --> 00:29:00.692
I'm just given a little handful of that--
00:29:00.692 --> 00:29:02.960
- [Nephew] And after all, the director,
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.070
Alan Parker, is the same guy who made Mississippi Burning,
00:29:07.070 --> 00:29:08.690
the Civil Rights film that pretended
00:29:08.690 --> 00:29:10.713
that white FBI agents helped out.
00:29:11.750 --> 00:29:13.360
I was even thinking of calling the movie,
00:29:13.360 --> 00:29:16.140
Come See the Parasites, but then I figured
00:29:16.140 --> 00:29:19.170
that being half-white myself, maybe I don't have
00:29:19.170 --> 00:29:20.333
that moral authority.
00:29:21.487 --> 00:29:23.280
So I guess nastiness is out, too.
00:29:23.280 --> 00:29:26.150
I guess I could just go for the straightforward review.
00:29:26.150 --> 00:29:28.310
The film was pretty much sentimental mush,
00:29:28.310 --> 00:29:30.630
but it was well done professional mush.
00:29:30.630 --> 00:29:31.463
- Thanks.
00:29:31.463 --> 00:29:33.400
- [Nephew] Ratings, I'm not giving a star rating,
00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:34.640
but I'll say this.
00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:36.600
Not as good as Godfather III,
00:29:36.600 --> 00:29:39.770
but better than Deathstalker III: Warriors from Hell.
00:29:39.770 --> 00:29:41.580
- So we won't know where we're going.
00:29:41.580 --> 00:29:42.660
- I'll find you.
00:29:42.660 --> 00:29:44.760
- But we're Americans-- - We stopped being Americans
00:29:44.760 --> 00:29:46.710
the moment they put up the barbed wire.
00:29:48.478 --> 00:29:50.663
- [Jack] My wife is an American citizen, sir.
00:29:51.793 --> 00:29:52.626
- [Man] You think the camps are wrong?
00:29:52.626 --> 00:29:54.141
- [Jack] Yes, sir, I do.
00:29:54.141 --> 00:29:54.974
- [Woman] Camp?
00:29:54.974 --> 00:29:55.807
You call this a camp?
00:29:56.769 --> 00:29:58.160
It's a goddamn outdoor jail.
00:29:58.160 --> 00:29:59.580
- [Rea] You asked what I thought I gained
00:29:59.580 --> 00:30:02.010
or lost from the evacuation.
00:30:02.010 --> 00:30:05.230
Gained, very little, except a unique situation
00:30:05.230 --> 00:30:07.900
that a very tiny percentage of the American public
00:30:07.900 --> 00:30:09.273
had every experienced.
00:30:10.926 --> 00:30:13.350
What I lost was my faith in the American Constitution,
00:30:13.350 --> 00:30:18.220
and it is for that reason that I left the U.S. 43 years ago,
00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:20.123
a year after I returned from the war.
00:30:21.914 --> 00:30:25.496
(water trickling)
00:30:25.496 --> 00:30:28.200
My sister used to say how funny it was,
00:30:28.200 --> 00:30:30.130
when someone tells you a story,
00:30:30.130 --> 00:30:32.130
you create a picture of it in your mind.
00:30:33.300 --> 00:30:36.343
Sometimes, the picture will return without the story.
00:30:37.860 --> 00:30:40.710
I've been carrying around this picture with me for years.
00:30:41.870 --> 00:30:44.370
It's the one memory I have of my mother speaking of camp
00:30:44.370 --> 00:30:45.393
while we grew up.
00:30:48.303 --> 00:30:51.130
I overhear her describing to my sister this simple action:
00:30:51.130 --> 00:30:54.703
her hands filling a canteen out in the middle of the desert.
00:30:57.411 --> 00:30:58.940
For years, I've been living with this picture
00:30:58.940 --> 00:31:02.583
without the story, feeling a lot of pain,
00:31:03.529 --> 00:31:05.883
not knowing how they fit together,
00:31:07.020 --> 00:31:08.830
but now, I found I could connect the picture
00:31:08.830 --> 00:31:12.250
to the story, and I could forgive my mother her loss
00:31:12.250 --> 00:31:15.457
of memory, and could make this image for her.
00:31:18.882 --> 00:31:23.882
(birds cawing) (water trickling)
