NFR Project: "Topaz" (1943-1945)

 

NFR Project: “Topaz”

Filmed by Dave Tasuno

Shot 1943-1945

84 min.

In case anyone is ever foolish enough to dispute it, these films prove that it happened.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, President Roosevelt designated all German, Italian, and Japanese nationals as enemy aliens. The onset of war made the general population uneasy – could these people be trusted? However, of the three ethnic groups, only the Japanese were subjected to imprisonment.

It was thought that Japanese-Americans would work for the success of the Japanese campaign against America. Doubting their loyalty, the government set up 10 “war relocation camps” in the interior of the continental United States. Between March and August of 1942, it forcibly exiled 120,000 Japanese-Americans, two-thirds of them American citizens, to these concentration camps, where they remained until the end of war. Many lost their homes and businesses; all were impacted physically and psychologically by this incarceration.

One of the inmates, Dave Tasuno, was a home-movie buff. He took his camera with him to the Topaz camp in Utah, and surreptitiously took color, silent 8-millmeter films of life in the camp. The films are the kind of home movies you would expect – shots of birthdays, church services, scenes from everyday life, the documentation of youth groups. The only thing off about these films is the fact that they take place in the hot, dusty confines of the isolated camp. Living in barracks, under guard, the prisoners managed to maintain their dignity, integrity, and culture despite the conditions imposed on them.

It is remarkable to see this evidence of people trying to live normal lives under extraordinary circumstances. The inmates, released after the end of World War II, returned to their homes to rebuild their lives. Not until the present time, when immigrants are again being rounded up and jailed without the benefit of legal proceedings, has such an infamous procedure been imposed on people living in this country.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Why We Fight.