New documentary remembers how incarcerated Japanese Americans lived in WWII
By Bryan Ke
PBS has released a documentary film that sheds new light on the lives of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, featuring first-hand stories and curated photographs from survivors.
Key points:
- “Snapshots of Confinement” premiered on Monday and is currently available for streaming on the PBS App.
- The film “delves into the strength of Japanese Americans during World War II and their efforts to preserve a sense of normalcy amid discrimination and isolation during incarceration.”
- About 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and transferred into concentration camps across the country during the war.
The details:
- “Snapshots of Confinement” is directed by J.D. Gonzales, who also goes by Joshua G. It is his first feature film.
- Esteban Gomez, an anthropology professor at the University of Denver (DU), and graduate Whitney Peterson are co-producers.
- The film features Diana Tsuchida, director of Tessaku, an organization that preserves stories of the incarceration. She shares pictures of her family and interviews others with similar experiences.
- Rosie Kakuuchi, who was incarcerated as a high school student, shares her family’s plight in the film. She has a brother and a sister who tragically died while giving birth to twin girls.
- The project took Gomez and Peterson a long time to make. Peterson said her passion to deliver stories of the time came while she was working at the Manzanar National Historic Site, which served as a concentration camp.
- Gomez and Peterson hope that “Snapshots of Confinement” could help attract younger audiences and inspire them to explore their own family histories.
“I think everyone can relate to having family heirlooms or things in their homes that might tell a story about their own legacy, and maybe their own history as well, and I think these photo albums do tell the story of resilience and community in a way that’s really important to reflect on,” Peterson said.
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