Abstract:

"CHILDREN OF THE CAMPS is a powerful documentary which shares the experiences, cultural and familial issues, and the long internalized grief and shame felt by six Japanese Americans who were only children when incarcerated in concentration camps during World War II. Subsequent to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, on February 19, 1942. This led to the mass evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent, more than half of whom were children. They were interned in 10 camps scattered throughout remote and desolate areas of the U.S. This video program is the result of a three-year long project by Dr. Satsuki Ina, a university professor and family therapist who has been conducting a series of three-day workshops for over ten years for other former fellow internees. With the expertise of a group of community-conscious filmmakers, she was able to capture a workshop on film in order to share the profound and proven healing experience with other Japanese Americans and the greater community at large. Unlike any other internment film, CHILDREN OF THE CAMPS examines how this early trauma manifests itself in their adult lives."