Fumiko Hayashida: The Woman Behind the Symbol 2009
Distributed by Stourwater Pictures, 11431 Miller Road NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110; 206-617-1354
Produced by Lucy Ostrander
Directed by Lucy Ostrander
DVD, color, 15 min.
Jr. High - General Adult
Japanese Americans, History, Human Rights
Date Entered: 11/06/2012
Reviewed by Veronica Maher, Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode IslandA very moving short film that stirs the emotions. This story of Fumika Hayashida and her family is a portrait of Japanese-Americans incarcerated during World War II. Recounting the events of February 1942 in Bainbridge Island, Washington the story is told using interviews of 97 year old Fumiko Hayashida who along with her family and 227 members of the community were forced to leave the Island and were held in concentration camps in Manzanar and Minidoka, two of the ten that held the Japanese Americans during WWII. The iconic photograph of Fumiko is symbolic of this shameful episode during World War II. The survivors and their heirs are working to memorialize their plight so that we will never forget this shameful part of our American story.
Highly recommended for those studying American history, especially WWII.