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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1353/

Introduction to Film

The reason I really took to animation is was the first film I saw was Snow White in camp. You know from all my ten cent saving, of the thing, it only cost ten cents a ticket. You know, so my brother and I we both bought tickets at the mess hall. You know they were selling tickets, you see. But you had to walk all the way, almost across town, to get to the, there's the only color theater, you know, so where they show feature films on sixteen millimeter, you know. 

So I, I...my brother and I we bought a ticket and we went to the cinema, or the theater, and I lost my ticket on the way, you know. So I was in tears, I said, my brother said, "I'm going in so you just go home."  You know? So I was walking home but I traced, this is the honest truth, I traced my path, I walk, I'm coming back, and I find my ticket on the ground. 'Cause I kinda felt I was pulling some paper or hanky or something out of my pocket and it was, my ticket was there.  I ran back. I was just in time to see the film and I saw the Snow White. And I thought, God this was the best thing ever, that I ever seen, and I wanted to be an animator. 


films World War II World War II camps

Date: June 29, 2012

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Chris Komai, John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Jimmy Murakami (1933 – 2014) was inspired as a child to become a film animator by watching the Disney cartoons that were shown to Japanese Americans confined at the Tule Lake concentration camp during WWII. After attending Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, he worked as an animator for UPA. He later founded Murakami Wolf—a company that produced many well-known commercials in the 1960s and 70s—and became a feature film director of When the Wind Blows and The Snowman. After establishing residence in Ireland in recent years, he passed away in February of 2014 at age 80.  (June 2014)

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Embarrassed to talk about camp

(b. 1934) Writer

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Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Documenting family history for future generations

(b. 1934) Writer

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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig

Family separated in the camps

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

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Gene Akutsu
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Gene Akutsu

Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft

(b. 1925) Draft resister

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Gene Akutsu
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Gene Akutsu

Talking to children about decision to resist the draft during World War II

(b. 1925) Draft resister

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Gene Akutsu
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Gene Akutsu

Reflecting on Japanese Americans' response to incarceration

(b. 1925) Draft resister

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Dale Minami
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Dale Minami

Not fully understanding parents' World War II incarceration while growing up

(b. 1946) Lawyer

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George Yamada
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George Yamada

Encountering a train full of Japanese Americans being transported to a concentration camp

(b. 1923) Chick sexer

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Luis Yamada
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Luis Yamada

Suffering in World War II (Spanish)

(b. 1929) Nisei Argentinean

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Henry Shimizu
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Henry Shimizu

Sneaking out of the Hastings Park camp during World War II

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Henry Shimizu
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Henry Shimizu

Government's permission to publish Japanese newspaper in Canada during World War II

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Henry Shimizu
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Henry Shimizu

Government urged Japanese Canadians to go to Japan

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Bill Hosokawa
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Bill Hosokawa

A Reporter’s Responsibility

(1915 - 2007) Journalist

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Daniel K. Inouye
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Daniel K. Inouye

Recalling Pearl Harbor

(1924-2012) Senator of Hawaii

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Daniel K. Inouye
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Daniel K. Inouye

The FBI and the radio

(1924-2012) Senator of Hawaii

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