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Ethnic Movie Review
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Ethnic Movie Review
Japanese Relocation February 16 February 16, 2017
The "Japanese Relocation" (1943) is an evocative historical outline of ethnicity described
in the forced Relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II. The film is introduced by
setting the tone of historical context by Milton S. Eisenhower immediately after the attack on
Pearl Harbor, where he points out that the U.S. government had to take action promptly to
address perceived internal threats as expressed in narration, "Our west coast became a potential
combat zone."
The film then moves on to poignant visuals of Japanese American families, many of
whom are U.S. citizens by birth, being forcibly asked to leave their homes. These scenes
document the emotional and logistical challenges these families had to undertake in preparing
stuff and planning for an uncertain future. The explained rationale presented by the government
to keep them in prison camps was a safeguarding measure for both the individuals and the
nation- captioned as "sabotage and espionage," directly showing ethnic discrimination.
As the film progresses towards resettlement, one gets to see the journey that the families
take towards the internment camps. There was ethnic discrimination where "citizens of Japanese
descent were ordered to register." When these visuals come with the narrator's assurance of
safety and national security, it indeed presents a contrast of provisions and seriousness of the
matter.
The visuals that come with the arrival of the internees in the internment camps show
hastily set up, primarily isolated facilities that were to be temporary homes to thousands of
Japanese Americans. Subtly, it is depicted how resilient and ready for adaptation they are as they
strive to get a sense of normalcy amidst adverse conditions; thus, they "held church services,
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Catholics, Protestants, and Buddhists, issued their newspaper and organized nursery schools.".
The film provides a clear message on the effect of wartime policies against ethnic groups
through its storyline and visuality.
Looking Like The Enemy April 9 April 9; 2015
"Looking Like the Enemy" is a 2015 docu-drama that tells poignant stories of Japanese
Americans, exploring issues like identity, resilience, and struggle against prejudice during World
War II. The film sets off with a solid historical context by immediately engaging the viewer in
the seriousness of the period when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor from the air, as announced
by President Roosevelt. The narration focuses much on how the Japanese Americans had been
poorly dealt with after the attack on Pearl Harbor at the very start. For example, when Akiko
Kurose went back to school the following day in December, her teacher said to her, "You people
bombed Pearl Harbor." Thus, her ethnicity as a Japanese became very apparent to her.
The documentary traces a footprint of historical events through historical footage and
broad coverage with the help of personal narratives and insight from experts. Emotions flood as
they draw the internment of Japanese Americans. Newspapers showed the challenges that
Japanese people faced, like "Japanese advance close to Singapore" and "Five espionage agencies
held active." It represents the effect that xenophobia and wartime hysteria have on innocents who
were targeted merely due to their ethnicity. For instance, it was rumored that Japanese
Americans were spying on the military bases and sabotaging them. Moreover, Dr. Seuss, the
popular children's book writer who was otherwise liberal in his mindset, drew political cartoons
blaming the Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.
The film also explains the discomfort and enmity of Japanese ancestry people. They lived
in fear. For instance, Roy Ebihara, a narrator in the movie, explains how they lived in mortal
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fear; therefore, the only way they would help themselves in case they were attached was to "run
through the cattle field and hide behind the wooden fences and try and defend themselves."
American Concentration Camp April 9 April 9, 2016
The documentary "American Concentration Camps," released on April 9, 2016, creates a
firsthand account of the dark chapter in American history: the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II. So sensitively rendered and touched with a historical eye, this documentary
provides insight into what fear and prejudice did for civil liberties and Japanese ethnic groups.
The Japanese ethnic group faced many challenges, including low living standards after
evacuation. Masao Watanabe begins by describing his experience of replacing pigs and the
parking lot in the "harmony camps" described by the authorities that were fairgrounds of
Western Washington. Masao describes it as a "traumatic type of living where you are in the
former stalls where the cows and the pigs and everything else was."
The juxtaposition of "American Concentration Camps" lies in the rosy picture painted by
the government about the detention centers. For instance, the government downplayed prison-
like conditions of detention centers by "calling the imprisoned people evacuees, colonists and
residents." Masao Watanabe further confirms that "families of six and seven were crowded in the
same spot."
Interviews of former internees add a human dimension to the loss of freedom, dignity,
and property. Their accounts of camp daily life—backed by inadequate housing, bad sanitation,
and constant surveillance—are fraught with stories of resilience and strength in the Japanese-
American community. Helen Harano Christ describes that a "garter snake had more freedom to
cross the fence and go away, but she couldn't do that." It also reserves the right to criticize
government moves and the lingering effect of such policies in Japanese American communities.
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In words, "Although government films acknowledge that life was not ideal, they never addressed
the injustice of the camps," explained the narrator.
