This film is quite faithful to Jeanne Houston's book "Farewell to Manzanar." It is also quite typical of 1970's made for TV films. The technical quality, lighting, costumes, and make-up definitely date this film. The trucking shots of the camp are over laughable models by today FX standards and reminiscent of 1950 SciFi movies. The exterior locations for this film are of historical interest. The "modern" (circa 1970's) exterior scenes of the Houston family revisiting the Manzanar Camp site are actually filmed at the Manzanar Site in the Owens Valley long before the camp became a National Historic Site. The "1940's" exterior scenes of Manzanar Camp were actually filmed at the site of the Tule Lake Relocation Camp in Northern California (recently dedicated as a National Historic Site in the summer of 2009). As for the discussion of concentration camps. Initially both FDR and the military initially referred to these places as "concentration camps." The term is technically appropriate. The term was initially coined during the Boer War at the turn of the 20th century in South Africa. The New Oxford Dictionary defines concentration camp as: "a camp where non-combatants of a district are accommodated, such as those instituted by Lord Kitchner during the South African War of 1899-1902." At that time the British forcefully removed the civilian Boer population from the frontier and placed them in guarded "concentration camps." "Internment camp" is a confusing term because, in its 20th century context, it refers to a facility to hold political opponents and enemy aliens. Over 60% of the people of Japanese ancestry held camps like Manzanar and Tule Lake were American citizens. The problem is one of euphemistic language. The Nazi "concentration camps" in Europe went well beyond the traditional description of concentration camps and should more appropriately be called "death camps," "forced labor camps," and "extermination camps." From the outset of the forced removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, there were many elements in the US government that suspected this process was illegal and unconstitutional (this suspicion was confirmed by the findings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in the 1980's). As a result of these suspicions, both the military and the US government began a propaganda campaign in 1942 to "legitimize" the removal of people of Japanese Ancestry from the West Coast. The military and government (the War Relocation Authority) propaganda films of this era are rife with euphemistic language, as are documents and reports of this period. Thus we are left with an official government record that speaks of "voluntary evacuation," "assembly centers," "relocation camps," and "residents" of the camps. Perhaps one of the most insidious uses of euphemistic language of the period appears on all of the 106 "Civilian Exclusion Orders" posters plastered on telephone poles and in public places up and down the west Coast. The order directs "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien" to leave their homes. What is a "non-alien?" How would it look if the military was ordering "American citizens" from their homes? The film "Remembering Manzanar" portrays, as does Jeanne Houston's book, the injury and pain associated with the forced removal of 120,000 people Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and the subsequent incarceration of 110,000 of these people. This film also shows these people of Japanese ancestry as typical humans with strengths and weaknesses and helps dispel the myth of a "model minority" who displayed super-human composure and turned "concentration camps" into "happy camps."
3 Reviews
Manzanar was a WAR RELOCATION CENTER
loyaltubist24 August 2007
These were internment camps, not concentration camps. Actually the authority that started up this terrible program wanted to call them concentration camps, until it came out what the Germans were doing at their camps in Europe. While these were not pleasant places and people were forced from their homes, giving up all their worldly possessions, there was no intended malice. I suggest you read some of the material by Milton Eisenhower.
About this movie, it was typical of the made for TV fare that existed from the late 1960s to the late 1970s--90 minutes long, not much budget. I think they actually filmed this on the site of the center, just south of Independence, California (the former site of Manzanar is in an area called "Alabama Hills.") The movie moves very similarly to the book, without all the details.
An interesting note is that Louie Frizzell (the late actor Lou Frizzell [1920-79]) took a job in Manzanar as a music teacher. In the movie he plays himself, although he was only in his early twenties when he was at Manzanar. He didn't take the job because of any patriotism or because he thought the Japanese-Americans were getting a raw deal. Rather, he needed a job!
For other information about Manzanar, I suggest anyone to take a visit. For many years, the site only had the dirt roads and "pads" where buildings used to be. About 3 or 4 years ago, the National Park Service began rebuilding the camp. I was last there in July 2004--a museum was built on the site of the Manzanar High School auditorium/cafeteria, which was where the center had special meetings, entertainments, and regular meals. There is also some interesting information about the center at the Eastern California Museum in Independence. It was here that I read about Louie Frizzell. At the museum you can also see what a typical room in the camp looked like.
About this movie, it was typical of the made for TV fare that existed from the late 1960s to the late 1970s--90 minutes long, not much budget. I think they actually filmed this on the site of the center, just south of Independence, California (the former site of Manzanar is in an area called "Alabama Hills.") The movie moves very similarly to the book, without all the details.
An interesting note is that Louie Frizzell (the late actor Lou Frizzell [1920-79]) took a job in Manzanar as a music teacher. In the movie he plays himself, although he was only in his early twenties when he was at Manzanar. He didn't take the job because of any patriotism or because he thought the Japanese-Americans were getting a raw deal. Rather, he needed a job!
For other information about Manzanar, I suggest anyone to take a visit. For many years, the site only had the dirt roads and "pads" where buildings used to be. About 3 or 4 years ago, the National Park Service began rebuilding the camp. I was last there in July 2004--a museum was built on the site of the Manzanar High School auditorium/cafeteria, which was where the center had special meetings, entertainments, and regular meals. There is also some interesting information about the center at the Eastern California Museum in Independence. It was here that I read about Louie Frizzell. At the museum you can also see what a typical room in the camp looked like.
America's concentration camps revisited
jacksonc16 May 1999
Concentration camps? in the USA? Yes, we did have them. Oh, they went by the euphemism of internment camps or relocation centers, but they were concentration camps. I know that they were not like the Holocaust or the Killing Fields. Those were more appropriately called death camps. This movie deals with one of the camps. The story follows the book by Jean Wakatsuki Houston quite closely. It is a depressing story about a depressing subject, but one that needs to be told, nevertheless, just in case we Americans ever get too smug about other countries having institutions where political prisoners are interned...
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