All posts by Frank Abe

FRANK ABE is co-author of the new graphic novel on Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration, WE HEREBY REFUSE (Chin Music Press: A Wing Luke Museum Book). He won an American Book Award for JOHN OKADA: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press), and made the award-winning PBS documentary, CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION, on the largest organized camp resistance. He is currently co-editing an anthology for Penguin Classics on The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration.

Post-screening discussion on Bainbridge Island

Bainbridge Island post-screening panelBainbridge Island audiences get it. They’ve embraced the exclusion very easily simply as part of their history, much like the residents I met in Eden, Idaho. Thanks to the 100 Islanders who came out Friday night for the DVD screening and discussion at Sakai Intermediate School. And thanks to Kay Sakai for sharing her memory not only of James Omura living on Bainbridge, but of working in the hospital on the night of the Manzanar Riot! See the photo gallery on our Facebook movie page, photos courtesy of Vivian Esteban Hwang, and a video glimpse of the audience watching the screening, courtesy of Vern Nakata.

Newspaper cover story

cover of Northwest Asian WeeklyI admit was floored when I saw the Northwest Asian Weekly put its review of our DVD on the front page this week. I mean, I was glad to talk to their correspondent, Andrew Hamlin, but not this. Editor Stacy Nguyen didn’t think so either, at first, but she read the piece and thought it was a great story. So she put it up there.

Regarding the reference in the piece to anti-war movements of the 1960s, I hope readers don’t come away with the notion that the Heart Mountain draft resisters were in any way pacifists or somehow reluctant to fight in WW2. These were guys who said they would be glad to fight – just as soon as their rights were first restored and their families released from camp. And the proof of that is that some of the guys who served time in prison for refusing to be drafted from inside a concentration camp, later gladly reported for duty, as free Americans, when drafted into service for the Korean War.

Incidentally, the DVD will be back in stock early this week at Kinokuniya Books at Uwajimaya in Seattle. Thanks for those who have asked for it there, it helps keep the bookstore interested in carrying Japanese American material. If you can’t make it there, it’s also available here.

Remembering David Ishii, Bookseller

David Ishii, BooksellerThanks for visiting from our tribute in Crosscut Public Media on the passing of David Ishii, Bookseller.

David put a public face on the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans for generations that passed through his store, read the exclusion order framed on the wall, looked through his shelves of Asian Americana and Pacific Northwest history, and stoipped to talk to him about redress, the resisters, or the nearby birthplaces of John Okada and Monica Sone. David was a friend of our film, and his passing leaves a deep hole not only in our hearts but in the life of the city he enriched with his passions for baseball, fly fishing, the opera and all the arts. He connected us all and built community.

See also our comments in The Seattle Times, “Longtime bookseller David Ishii was quite a story himself.”

Photo courtesy of Deb Todd

Seattle DVD release and screening at the Wing Luke Musuem

Thanks to the more than 75 who came out today for the Seattle DVD release at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. Some were waiting in line for the museum to open at 10am to get a ticket for the 1pm screening, then quickly filled the Tateuchi Story Theater. This was one of our most rapt audiences, who laughed in all the right places; even the babe in arms enjoyed the film quietly.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and questions and it was a pleasure to meet so many of you afterwards, including Miyoko who told me the story of why Jim Akutsu switched churches after the death of his mother. For Mike Tagawa, who told me of his days as an original Black Panther, here’s the ITVS documentary with lost footage of the Panthers that just aired last week on PBS. I’m sorry I lost track of the woman who wanted the Japanese lyrics to the Song of Cheyenne, I wanted to direct her to this image of the actual scrap of paper that we found in James Kado’s wallet. It is this song to which Mako fit the melody of the Japanese Hawaiian work song, “Hore Hore Bushi,” and which we were delighted to be able to include on our new Two-Disc DVD.

I also want to thank the staff for their terrific arrangements for todays’s DVD release: community programs manager Vivian Chan, education director Charlene Mano-Shen (who said the audience was “blown away” by the experience, and who is pictured above welcoming them) and Hanh Pham and Trayvian in The Marketplace. Speaking of which, only at The Marketplace can you now obtain the hard-to-find 18×24 inch film festival poster for CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION, for the nominal price of $5, half of which goes to support the museum.

If you saw the screening today, or any past screening, please leave your feedback here.

DVD review in International Examiner and preview of Seattle screening

Wing Luke Museum logo Thanks to Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times for highlighting in her column in the “Movietimes” section our first public screening of the new Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD of “Conscience and the Constitution.” And thanks to those who have RSVP’d on Facebook. No reservation or ticket needed. Just come by the Wing Luke Asian Museum in the Tateuchi Story Theater, 719 South King Street, Seattle, on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1:00 p.m. Producer Frank Abe will screen the film and debut a new DVD featurette, “The JACL Apologizes,” on events that occurred after the film’s release, answer questions, and sign DVD’s.

Also in Seattle, see the new review in the International Examiner. Having read the paper for decades, it’s an honor to be included in the IE Arts section edited by poet and greengrocer Alan Lau. This review from Chizu Omori is among the most detailed yet. Looks great online but the article is truly impressive in print, pick up the paper if you can.

Finally, this Saturday, Feb. 11, Seattle University is hosting the The 25th Anniversary of the United States v. Hirabayashi Coram Nobis Case: Its Meaning Then and Its Relevance Now, with a lineup starting with Tom Ikeda and Peter Irons and ending with the Sansei attorneys on the legal team. Should be quite a reunion with old friends.

In memoriam: Gordon Hirabayashi

Gordon Hirabayashi (UPI)Obscured in much of this week’s news coverage of the passing of Gordon Hirabayashi is the fact that Gordon was not only a Constitutional test case, he was a Nisei draft resister like the Heart Mountain boys. His case, along with those of Fred Korematsu and Min Yasui, was opposed by the wartime Japanese American Citizens League because, as Mike Masaoka puts it on our DVD, “they were criminal cases,” and JACL favored its own civil habeas corpus case fronted by the irreproachable Mitsuye Endo. Listen to how Mike explains it in our bonus DVD audio feature, “Masaoka on test cases.” Read the New York Times obituary.

Final DVD artwork

All of the new DVD artwork is now posted in our Online Press Kit for viewing and download. Still waiting for the empty cases to arrive from New Jersey before the factory can cut the inserts and assemble the packages. In the meantime, here are samples of the labels and the inserts, which if you click on and enlarge, will show you details of all the bonus features on both discs.

DVD cover
Front cover
Back cover
Scene selection menu

Outtakes menu
Interviews menu
Disc One label
Disc Two label
Disc One insert
Disc Two insert

Preview of DVD casewrap and menu screens

DVD casewrap Thanks to the 144 of you who have up to this moment Liked our new page on Facebook and are visiting here for the first time. We’re gearing up for delivery of the finished DVD’s. The discs are replicated and labeled, the artwork for the casewrap and insert has been perfected and in the hands of the production house for printing and cutting, and the flip-tray clamshell cases are on order. All that remains is for the assembly of the pieces into the cases and the final shrink-wrap. And the shipments. We have several pre-orders to fill plus those who were promised DVD’s with their VHS orders over these last few months; we thank you for your patience and believe the wait will be worth it.

DVD menu The casewdrap design for the DVD is shown here. Click on the image to examine the text and design in closeup. Also to the right is the design for the Outtakes menu on Disc One, which you can click on and enlarge to preview the titles of the 11 new outtakes.

In memoriam: Noboru Taguma

I’m very saddened to learn of the passing last week of Noboru “Elmer” Taguma of the Sacramento area. Noboru was one of the early resisters from the American concentration camp at Amache, Colorado, aka the Grenada Relocation Center. He’s also the father of Nichi Bei Weekly editor Kenji Taguma, to whom we send our deepest condolences.

Noboru was a great guy, quick to laugh and always with a sly smile on his face. He provides an impish comment that caps one of the bonus features on our forthcoming DVD. I don’t want to spoil the moment, you will soon be able to see for youself.

Kenji posted more details about his father, along with the photo of him that appears near the end of our film:

TAGUMA, NOBORU, 87, passed away peacefully at his home in West Sacramento, Calif. on March 11, 2011. A native of Broderick, Calif. who was born on April 3, 1923, he retired in the early 1990s after farming tomatoes for 45 years, mostly for Campbell’s Soup, around Clarksburg, Yolo County, Calif.

During World War II, he was one of only 300 young Nisei to resist a military draft imposed behind barbed wire, based upon constitutional principle. He stated he would gladly fight for his country if his family was released from the wartime concentration camps and his citizenship rights were restored. Once shunned by so-called “community leaders,” the resisters today are heralded for the civil rights stand they took….

He is survived by his beloved wife of nearly 53 years, Sakaye (Yoshizawa) Taguma; daughter Masako Carol Yasue of Nagoya, Japan; son Makoto Mark (Alice) Taguma of Mountain View, Calif.; daughters Mariko Sharon (Benjamin Kam) Taguma of Union City, Calif. and Machiko Gail (Andy) Irie of Torrance, Calif.; and son Kenji Glenn Taguma of San Francisco. …

Final Viewing will be held on Thursday, April 7, 6 to 8 p.m., at Sacramento Memorial Lawn, 6100 Stockton Blvd. in Sacramento.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, April 9, 1:30 p.m., at Sacramento Memorial Lawn, with burial to immediately follow. Reception afterwards at the Tenrikyo Sacramento Church, 6361 25th Street (at 47th Avenue) in Sacramento.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to the Nichi Bei Foundation, P.O. Box 15693, San Francisco, CA 94115.