Injustice at Home is a documentary series which was shown on US public television (KSPS) over a period of three years (2018-2021).
The topic is the exclusion and internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.
More than 111,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from the western part of the continental USA and placed in ten internment camps located in remote areas.
Each camp was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed guards.
Here is some basic information about this series:
** Director: Jim Zimmer
** Narrator: Joel Weldon (seasons 1 and 2)
** Narrator: Wendy Zier (season 3)
** Consultant: Jason Miller
How many seasons are there?
Three.
How many episodes are there?
Fifteen.
Here is a list of all episodes:
Season 1 – 29 August 2018
Episode 1 – Looking like the enemy
Episode 2 – Beyond the exclusion zone
Episode 3 – Questions of loyalty
Episode 4 – The upstanders
Episode 5 – Resilience behind barbed wire
Season 2 – 14 September 2020
Episode 1 – Kasuko Sakai Nakao
Episode 2 – Kaz Yamamoto
Episode 3 – Frank Hirahara
Episode 4 – Fred Shiosaki
Season 3 – 15 April 2021
Episode 1 – We only took what we could carry
Episode 2 – We lost everything
Episode 3 – No place to come home to
Episode 4 – Shikata Ga Nai
Episode 5 – Never again
Episode 6 – Wartime witness
Run time:
Season 1 = 33 minutes
Season 2 = 22 minutes
Season 3 = 37 minutes
Total run time = 92 minutes
The Japanese expression Shikata Ga Nai (which is used in season 3 episode 4) can be translated as follows:
“You can’t change this, so make the best of it!”
Each episode covers one aspect of the general topic or the experience of one person and his or her family.
If you watch all fifteen episodes, you will learn a lot about the general topic.
Obviously, there are some repetitions, because each episode is created so it can stand alone.
Almost every episode begins by mentioning two basic facts: (1) the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and (2) Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on 19 February 1942. But once the general background has been presented, each episode has its own agenda.
Several short episodes were combined and edited to form a feature film which has the same title as the series:
Injustice at Home
The feature film, which runs for 58 minutes, was aired on public television (KSPS) on 19 February 2019.
The date was carefully chosen: the decision to remove the Japanese Americans from the western part of the continental USA and place them in ten concentration camps located in remote areas was based on Executive Order 9066 which was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on 19 February 1942.
If you are interested in the history of the United States – in particular the history of human rights in times of war – this program is definitely something for you.
It is highly recommended.
REFERENCES
** The Idaho Homefront: Of Camps and Combat
PBS, 27 minutes
20 September 2007
** Amache: Granada War Relocation Camp
PBS, 57 minutes
19 June 2013
** A Tribute to One-Puka-Puka
PBS, 57 minutes
7 December 2017
** Silent Sacrifice: Stories of Japanese American Incarceration in central California and Beyond
PBS, 117 minutes
7 March 2018
** Mr. Tanimoto’s Journey
PBS, 27 minutes
2 May 2018
** A Grave Injustice
PBS, 27 minutes
15 August 2019
** Three Views on Manzanar
PBS, 27 minutes
22 October 2019
** Armed with Language
PBS, 57 minutes
17 May 2021
** Why the US Photographed its own Concentration Camps
Vox Darkroom, YouTube, 14 minutes
10 January 2022
** Betrayed: Surviving an American Concentration Camp
PBS, 57 minutes
8 April 2022
** Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066
PBS, 58 minutes
8 April 2022
** Before They Take Us Away
PBS, 57 minutes
18 May 2022
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Anti-Japanese sentiment was widespread and openly expressed in California
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Japanese Americans are removed from the exclusion zone
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An American concentration camp (a war relocation center) where Japanese Americans were placed during World War Two
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