RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS

shows how the Japanese integrate and direct reactions from Japan- in environmental studies, geogra- energy sources. The final seg- change and reinvent their own ese teens provide viewers with a phy, sociology, political science, ment on global communications traditions. The viewer learns unique, personal understanding psychology, and a unit on post- will be of interest to students and about haiku, sum¬, y†zen, and of the effects of both the prob- World War II Japan in world schools wishing to engage in Kabuki, and sees how traditions lems and solutions. The greatest history courses. dialogue with Japanese teachers are preserved and passed along strength of this film is its ability I would recommend the first and students using the Internet. from one generation to the next. to evoke in the viewer a sense two segments particularly for The Teacher’s Guide contains At the same time, advances in of how Japanese solutions their candid portrayal of such several effective teaching/learn- technology and global communi- draw from Japan’s traditions problems as ijime, or bullying, ing activities suitable for high cations, especially television, and cultural experiences. In and murahachibu, the practice of school students, and the opportu- demonstrate how new ideas are addition, viewers can assess excluding people from the com- nities for independent work, adopted. I highly recommend this how America’s solutions to munity so that they receive no such as using the Internet film for use in middle school some of the same problems are help of any kind except in emer- to exchange ideas, provide Global Studies and Geography based on our own traditions and gencies such as fire or death. potential real-world applications classes and also for cross-disci- cultural experiences. While these segments refer to for further research and study. plinary courses on cultural identi- The forty-five-minute program the increase in petty crime, drug The film Tune in Japan: Global ty. The accompanying Teacher’s is divided into four segments use, truancy, and drop-outs Connections and its correspond- Guide contains exemplary that may be used separately or among Japanese teens, the film ing Teacher’s Guide make lessons that will reinforce current together. The segments include reflects the recent efforts of the excellent resources for inclusion best practices for classroom discussion about creating a per- Monbusho to reduce bullying in into a high school curriculum. n teaching. n sonal identity while maintaining schools. Additional issues focus Henry Kiernan allegiance to a group, preserving on the effect of immigration on a s the high school com- community and national security, relatively homogeneous culture, panion piece to Tune in implementing recycling pro- Japan’s rice importation policy, A Japan: Approaching Cul- grams, and increasing global and the cautious reactions from ture Through Television, this communications through such Japan’s neighbors as to the use of HENRY KIERNAN, the Superin- film is unique in its frank activities as exchange programs Japan’s self-defense force. tendent for the West Morris portrayal of how the Japanese and the Internet. While the film The third segment investigates Regional High School District, Chester, New Jersey, is the recipi- are attempting to solve contem- could be used effectively in a Japan’s environmental efforts to ent of a Japan Foundation Fellow- porary social problems. Each Global Studies course, individual improve recycling, land reclama- ship and a Fulbright scholarship problem is discussed openly, segments could easily be applied tion, and the use of alternative to the People’s Republic of China.

and other camps during World be accepted, of the inescapable From a Different Shore War II. Home movies of an earli- barrier of ethnic appearances, of The Japanese American Experience er generation show American white Americans’ perhaps uncon- children with Japanese faces cel- scious tendency to think of non-

FILMS FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES ebrating birthdays, eating ice Caucasian, non-African Ameri- BOX 2053, PRINCETON, NJ 08543-2053 cream cones, wearing Boy Scout cans as foreign. 800-257-5126 uniforms. Videotape of a recent Through the generations repre- 1996. 50 MINUTES. COLOR Japanese festival parade in Los sented, we see pride in Japanese Angeles, on the other hand, American family achievement ome of the images are com- American Experience, a video in shows Japanese American chil- and assimilation contrasted with pelling: a sea of Japanese the series on An American Identi- dren in traditional Japanese dress the very different experiences of SAmerican faces pledging ty from Films for the Humanities. reenacting a culture they are try- contemporary Japanese business allegiance to the American flag; The other point is that this partic- ing to reclaim. people in the same area, Los a small child sitting patiently ular group of Americans had a In these episodes from The Angeles. One group is American, on a pile of his family’s belong- particularly unjust experience Japanese American Experience, speaks English as a primary lan- ings; a grocery store whose during World War II, at least on this video—made for The Open guage, prefers American food; owner, going out of business, the Western seaboard. University of the British Broad- the other is Japanese, speaks and has posted a large sign in the win- Poignantly, against archival casting Company and directed by reads Japanese, prefers Japanese dow proclaiming “I AM AN photographs and current images Jeremy Cooper—tells us little food. Racial origin and culture AMERICAN.” of the stark American West, about Asia, little about Japan, but are not the same, though typical Asian Americans in America Japanese Americans tell the story quite a lot about America. It tells American students may have are Americans, not Asians. of their current achievements us about the desire of the poor to more trouble seeing the distinc- That’s one point of From a while their parents tell the story make a good life in a new environ- tion when the faces are Asian. Different Shore: The Japanese of their internment at Manzanar ment, of the urge to assimilate and Of course, the video’s most

81 RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS

and ball games.” The countryside that different shore. While my was beautiful, with fruit trees, but students were moved by the the camp was surrounded with words of the older generation, barbed wire fences and, he says, this younger audience wanted to “That was a very sobering aspect see the faces and hear the voices of it.” Another interviewee, Kay of the younger generation. They Komai, says plaintively, “They wanted more footage of the said it was for our protection, but camps, more images from current they had these guard towers, and lives, more clear delineation of the guns were pointed at us.” the experiences of individuals Mrs. Komai articulates the and their families. They wanted most damaging point about music to enhance the drama. the internment experience, more They wanted clearer delineation damaging than the loss of of the various families and fami-

Photo courtesy of Films for the Humanities, Inc. goods and livelihoods: that is, ly members—perhaps by a dif- the loss of civil liberties. “We ferent use of the settings—so striking subject, at least for my courts later acknowledged in were Americans,” she says, “and they could keep the characters North Carolina college freshmen, awarding damages to those we thought the Constitution straight. is the experience of internment interned, but the film gives a vari- would protect us. And the Nevertheless, these quibbles during the war. Many of my stu- ety of voices from the interned Constitution didn’t work. Why reveal their curiosity. For a com- dents did not know about this generation and makes clear that a didn’t it work? We were Ameri- position class like mine, an part of our history at all, and oth- kind of community emerged can citizens. We didn’t think of American history class, a multi- ers had mostly misinformation. from their experiences. The soft- ourselves as Japanese.” cultural literature class, a political Wanting to make the situation spoken Harry Kitano, a professor Comments like these make the science class in high school or black or white, they rush to out- at UCLA, describes entering the subjects very human, very sym- college, the video is an excellent rage and miss the moderating camp at fifteen and finding it, at pathetic, very appealing charac- introduction to a subject few points made by the film. first, like summer camp, though ters. Though some students American young people know The moderating points are “we missed regular aspects of express surprise that the Japanese much about. It is a subject that is damaging enough, as the U.S. American life like hamburgers Americans don’t seem more visi- not foreign to them, but goes to bly angry, the very gentleness of the heart of what it means to be the speakers wins their sympa- an American. When Mrs. Komai thy, whereas anger might have says, “You don’t know what put these viewers on the defen- freedom is till you have lost it,” sive. Because the film is not they hear her plainly. overly polemical, it is persuasive. Even though the film may “Never again” is the point. not clearly depict how authentic Although for years they avoided Japanese elements survive in talking about the camps, the older this culture, From a Different generation tells the story now to Shore is a gentle invitation to their children and to the viewers look in a fresh way at the univer- because, as one son says, “they sal immigrant experience and want us to know so that we know the experience of difference in it could happen to anyone.” American society. n The subject is compelling, the Elizabeth Addison video a little less so. It barely touches on how the culture of the Japanese Americans evolved in this country, on what daily life ELIZABETH ADDISON is an Assis- was like in the camps, on how tant Professor and directs the people used to a working life freshman composition program in the English Department at Western made use of their time and ener- Carolina University. Her Ph.D. from gy there, on what aspects of Duke University, in nineteenth-cen- Japanese culture persist among tury American literature, intersects them today. The younger people in curious ways with her long- From a Different standing interest in Asian culture, interviewed in now enhanced by several experi- Shore have accommodated so ences sponsored by the East-West well that they give little sense of Center, Honolulu.

82 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 3, Number 2 Fall 1998