#internment camps

Today is the 80th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt signing executive order 9066, and creating one of the darkest moments in American history. Upon its signing, over 100,000 Japanese Americans were denied their freedoms and due process. People like my grandparents and great grandparents were denied due process and their freedom, and forced to leave the lives that they fought so hard to create in this country. They would be forced at gunpoint into racetracks and fairgrounds, and finally into trains and buses to Concentration Camps. I created “Gaman” to help people empathize with the plight that so many were forced into by their government, and to start a conversation about this often hidden moment in our history. I am releasing it publically today for everyone to enjoy, and to hopefully inspire those who watch it to look into this history so that we may never repeat it again. Follow the link below to watch my film:https://youtu.be/Vu_RsjR0iy8

In honor of this day of remembrance, I thought that I would share a visual development piece for my short film Gaman. On Feb 19, 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, officially starting the internment of Japanese Americans. This was the culmination of decades of Anti-Asian sentiment and racism in the US, and saw over 100,000 Issei, Nissei, and Sansei have their rights and property stripped from them before being forced into concentration camps. Let us have this day to reflect on this horrendous act, and how the same sentiments that created internment manifest today in the US and around the world. 

New from Heyday, Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations, by John Tateishi. The book is the story of a community reckoning with what it means to be both culturally Japanese and American citizens; how to restore honor; and what duty it has to protect such harms from happening again. This book has powerful implications as the idea of reparations shapes our national conversation.

Japanese-Canadian family waiting to board trains to take them to internment camps in Canada, WWII