HEY!

What if tens of thousands of American citizens — men, women and children, who were not accused or convicted of any crime — were rounded up and put in prison camps for years on end?

It happened, and those citizens were Americans of Japanese descent, who lived on the west coast of the United States. The time was World War II, and Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. In all, about 110,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese residents, who lived in California and elsewhere, were forced to leave their homes, businesses, possessions and friends behind, and were imprisoned by the U.S. government for years [Wikipedia, New York Times].

Jerome War Relocation Center in Jerome, Arkansas. Photo credit: Interior Department via National Archive.

This week, I rented a feature film called “American Pastime,” which came out this year. It tells the story of a young baseball player and musician whose plans are cut short due to his family being taken from their homes in Los Angeles to a Utah internment camp, and a white family whose father and daughter work at the camp. The film was released this year, and I’m surprised it did not get wider release — it seems it was only seen in film festivals before heading to DVD.

Although this isn’t the world’s biggest budget-busting blockbuster, this is a solid movie whose small story of two families, one Japanese-American and one Caucasian, seeks to give context to many thousands of stories that are untold. I’m not sure if this film is at your local store. You may have to go to Netflix or ask your local library to order it. This would also be a good film for high school classrooms [IMDB Reviews, Amazon].

In the movie, a white guy says to the Japanese-American kid. “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?”

“I’m from Los Angeles,” the kid says.

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