Filmography

Beyond Barbed Wire (1997). Director: Steve Rosen. The story of Japanese American soldiers during WW II. 88 min. DVD version includes the feature, “Go For Broke” (1951) starring Van Johnson. Total running time: 3 hrs, 45 min.

Children of the Camps (1999). Producer: Satsuki Ina. On the psychological trauma of persons who were children during the Internment period, and their lives afterward. 57 min. NAATA.

The Color of Honor (1988). Producer/director: Loni Ding. Documentary on The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry, Military Intelligence Service, and Heart Mountain Resisters. 90 min. NAATA.

Conscience and the Constitution (2000). Producer/director: Frank Abe. The story of the largest organized draft resistance effort in the concentration camps at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. 57 min.

Conversations: Before the War/After the War (1986). Director: Robert Nakamura. Docudrama with three fictional stories on the Internment experience. 29 min. NAATA.

Days of Waiting (1988). Director/Producer: Steven Okazaki. Features Estelle Ishigo, Caucasian woman artist who was married to a Japanese American and spent the war years in a concentration camp. 18 min. NAATA.

A Family Gathering (1988). Director: Lise Yasui. The Yasui family history and their experiences in Internment camps. 30 and 60 min.

Heart Mountain: Three Years in an Internment Camp (1997). A KCSM production in the New American Series, consulting producer: Dianne Fukami. Interviews with former internees at Heart Mountain. 27 min.

Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story (2004). In World War II, at age 13, Art Shibayama was among the 2000+ Japanese Latin Americans kidnapped and brought to the US to be used for hostage exchange with Japan. Director: Casey Peek. Producer: Irum Shiekh. Progressive Films.

History and Memory (1991). Director/producer: Rea Tajiri. A personal exploration of the individual and collective memory about her family’s internment experience. 32 min.

Honor Bound: A Personal Journey (1995). Director: Wendy Hanamura. The story of Hanamura’s father who is a WW II 442nd Infantry veteran. 51 min. NAATA.

Meeting At Tule Lake (1994). Director/Producer: Scott T. Tsuchitani for the Tule Lake Committee. Former Tule Lake internees discuss their experiences. 33 min. NAATA.

Of Civil Rights and Wrongs (2002). Director: Eric Fournier. The story of Fred Korematsu who challenged the government’s incarcerating Japanese Americans during WW II, and whose case before the Supreme Court became a landmark decision. 60 min. NAATA.

A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the United States (1992). Director: John de Graaf with The Constitution Project. The life of Gordon Hirabayashi and his legal challenge to the Internment which resulted in a Supreme Court case. 30 min. NAATA.

Rabbit In the Moon (1999). Producers: Emiko Omori & Chizu Omori. Director: Emiko Omori. Story of the Omori family during WW II within the larger context of the incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps. 85 min. New Day Films.

Starting Over: Japanese Americans After the War (1996). Producer: Dianne Fukami for KCSM television. Documentary on the resettlement period after WW II for Japanese Americans. 60 min. NAATA.

Tanforan: Race Track to Assembly Center (1995). Director: Diane Fukami for KCSM television. Story of the transformation of a race track to temporary center for Japanese Americans. 57 min.

Uncommon Courage (2001). Producer: Gayle Yamada. Documentary on the role of Japanese American soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service. 57 min. NAATA.

Unfinished Business: The Japanese American Internment Cases (1986). Director: Steven Okazaki. The story of the legal battles of Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Minoru Yasui which were decided by the Supreme Court during WW II against all 3 plaintiffs. These cases were reopened and vacated in the 1980s in the precedent-setting coram nobis cases. 58 min.

Who’s Going to Pay for These Donuts Anyway? (1992). Producer/director: Janice Tanaka. The filmmaker’s search for her father who was separated from the family for 40 years as a result of his resistance to the Internment. 58 min. NAATA.

Feature Films:
The following is an abridged list of films dealing with the internment.

Come See the Paradise (1990). The story of an American man who falls in love with a Japanese American woman and how they deal with internment.

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999). A mystery set in Washington State just after WW II.

Farewell to Manzanar (1976). Fact based drama about one of the internment camps use by the American Military during WW II.