Event Details

Film screenings about Japanese American wartime experience is on every Wednesday evenings. Furikake popcorn and green tea will be provided.

May 12: "The Art of Gaman"

The Story Behind the Objects. Rick Quan. Made to support "The Art of Gaman" exhibition at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery (March 5, 2010 - January 30, 2011), "The Story Behind the Objects" is about the internees who created the objects, as told by their children and grandchildren. Interspersed between these deeply personal accounts are historical film clips and photographs taken in the camps and an interview with Delphine Hirasuna, who wrote the book and curated the show, "The Art of Gaman".

Voices Long Silent. Bob Matsumoto. In 1980, when advertising creative director Bob Matsumoto learned that the U.S. Congress had established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to hear testimony from former internees, he thought of the thousands of internees who had died and could not tell their story. This prompted him to produce "Voices Long Silent" to relate the hopes and dreams of the immigrant (Issei) generation and the ordeal they faced during their evacuation, relocation, internment and return to the West Coast. Actors from the famed East West Players provided the voiceover. Matsumoto added the prologue and epilogue to the film following the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which resulted in a formal letter of apology from the U.S. government and monetary redress. The film was amended a third time after the U.S. government reexamined the records of Japanese Americans who served in the U.S. military during World War II, and issued hundreds of additional medals, including 21 Congressional Medal of Honor awards.