Amache: Granada War Relocation Center is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2013.
The topic of this film is the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War Two, with special focus on Amache - the smallest of ten concentration camps which were established in seven states across the US to house more than 111,000 Japanese Americans during the war.
This camp was located in Colorado, not far from the town of Granada. The official name of the camp is Granada War Relocation Center, but the people who lived there during the war called it Amache.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Julie Speer Jackson
** Writers: Julie Speer Jackson and Jason Bunch
** Production: Rocky Mountain PBS and the Colorado Experience
** Available on the PBS website (with subtitles)
** Available on YouTube (no subtitles)
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 56 minutes
Eight persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (in alphabetical order):
** Paul H. Chan – a lawyer - National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, president 1996-1997
** Bonnie Clark – professor of anthropology, University of Denver
** Dr William J. Convery – state historian, Colorado
** Robert Fuchigami – interned at Amache
** John Hopper – Principal of Granada High School and director of Amache Preservation Society
** Abby Hooper – former student at Granada High School and daughter of John Hopper
** May Murakami – interned at Amache
** Bruce Newman – resident of Granada 1935-1947
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the participants.
Several clips come from films made by the US government in order to explain the policy of internment to the American people and to convince them that this policy was a necessary precaution which the government had to take for reasons of national security.
Amache – Granada War Relocation Center – opened in August 1942 and closed in October 1945. During this time, the number of inmates fluctuated, but the highest number of inmates was 7,300.
Amache was the smallest of the ten internment camps built for Japanese Americans during World War Two.
When the Japanese Americans from the West Coast came to Colorado, the construction of the camp was not yet complete. Some barracks had been built, but more barracked needed to be built. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed guards.
In the beginning, the rules of the camp were strictly enforced. No inmates were allowed to leave the camp and the perimeter of the camp was carefully guarded. But after a while, the rules were relaxed.
The guard towers were not always manned by armed guards. Inmates were allowed to leave the camp to work on nearby fields and to visit the nearby town of Granada.
Like all relocation camps, Amache was built in a remote location, but Amache was different from the other camps, because it was not far from a small town.
The relationship between the camp and the nearby town of Granada was not constant. In the beginning, many inhabitants of the town were not happy to have a camp filled with Japanese Americans as their neighbours, but after a while, many of them began to change their attitude.
Many shopkeepers in town were happy to have some extra customers when inmates from the camp came to Granada. When they met the Japanese Americans, they realized that they were normal people. They were not dangerous spies or saboteurs, as official American propaganda suggested.
In 1943, the US government decided that Japanese Americans who were citizens could join the US Army. Amache is remarkable, because it has a relatively high number of volunteers.
More than 900 young men from this camp volunteered to join the US Army and to fight for the US. They decided to do this, even though their families were placed in a concentration camp, because they wanted to prove that they were loyal American citizens and that the incarceration of the Japanese Americans was wrong.
In order to deal with more than 111,000 Japanese Americans who had to be evacuated from the West Coast and to be placed in camps further inland, the US established a new government agency known as the War relocation Agency (WRA).
The first director of the WRA was Milton Eisenhower, brother of Dwight Eisenhower, the future president of the United States. Milton did not last long in this job. He resigned after only three months because there was a difference of opinions.
Milton did not agree with the policy of the government and the military. He was more concerned about the civil rights of the Japanese Americans than the government and the military. He refused to do something that he felt was not right, so he decided he had to resign.
While he was still on the job, he appeared in a documentary film produced by the government.
In this film, he explains what the WRA is doing. He also presents the official reasons why the Japanese Americans must be evacuated from the exclusion zone and be placed in camps further inland.
Clips from this government film are included in the film about Amache Camp.
What do reviewers say about this film? This question is not easy to answer. The film is listed on IMDb but there is no rating and there are no reviews. The film is not available on Amazon and there are no reviews.
What do I think? In my opinion, this is an important film about an important topic. The story of the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War Two is a dark chapter of American history which deserves to be told.
The story has often been told as a general story which covers all ten camps. When this happens, there cannot be many details about each camp.
The director of this film, who is based in Colorado, decided to focus on the camp which was located in this state and I think this was a good idea which works very well. It makes the story more personal.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent)
PS # 1. On 18 March 2022, President Biden signed the Amache Historic Site Act, designating the Amache site near Granada, Colorado, as part of the National Park System.
Amache was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in May 1994 and designated a National Historic Landmark in February 2006.
PS # 2. Where were the ten war relocation centers located? Here is a list of the ten camps:
** Arizona = Poston and Gila Center
** Arkansas = Rohwer and Jerome
** California = Manzanar and Tule Lake
** Colorado = Amache
** Idaho = Minidoka
** Utah = Topaz
** Wyoming = Heart Mountain
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
** Amache: The Story of Japanese American Internment in Colorado During World War II by Robert Harvey (2003)
** Amache Remembered: An American Concentration Camp, 1942-1945 by Robert Fuchigami (2020)
** When Can We Go Back to America? Voices of Japanese American Incarceration During WWII by Susan H. Kamei (2021)
# 2. Film and video
** A Bitter Legacy
76 minutes
2016
** Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066
PBS, 58 minutes
2018
** Never Give UP! Minoru Yasui
PBS, 29 minutes
2019
Betrayed: Surviving an American Concentration Camp
PBS, 56 minutes
2022
# 3. Websites
Amache Preservation Society
Established in 1993 by John Hopper. At the time, he was a social studies teacher at Granada High School. Later, he was appointed to be the principal of this school.
Densho Encyclopedia
This is an online resource dedicated to the Japanese American experience during World War Two
** This encyclopedia has been online since 2012
** It is a work in progress.
*****
Amache:
Granada War Relocation Center
This picture was taken during World War Two,
while the barracks were still standing
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Amache:
Japanese American
Relocation Center
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Amache Remembered:
An American Concentration Camp,
1942-1945
By Robert Fuchigami
(2020)
*****
