Farewell to Manzanar (1976) (TV)

Director:

John Korty

Writers:

James D. Houston (book)
James D. Houston (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

11 March 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Fact based drama about one of the internment camps used by the American military during World War II...

Plot Keywords:

Internment Camp | Japanese | Nisei | World War Two | Based On Book

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win

Cast

Yuki Shimoda	...	Ko Wakatsuki
Nobu McCarthy	...	Misa / Jeanne Wakatsuki
Dori Takeshita	...	Young Jeanne
Akemi Kikumura	...	Koro
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Teddy Wakatsuki
Mako	...	Fukimoto
Pat Morita	...	Zenahiro
James Saito	...	Richard Wakatsuki
Momo Yashima	...	Alice
Gretchen Corbett	...	Lois
Kip Niven	...	Captain Curtis
Lou Frizzell	...	Lou Frizzell
Frank Abe	...	Frank Nishi
Vernon Kato	...	Calvin
Seth Sakai	...	Joe Takahashi
Ron Weyand	...	Holtzman
Mitsu Yashima	...	Granny
Greta Chi	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael L. Davis	...	Guard (uncredited)

Directed by
John Korty

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
James D. Houston		book
James D. Houston		screenplay
Jeanne Houston		book
Jeanne Houston		screenplay
John Korty

Produced by
John Korty	....	producer
George Santoro	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Paul Chihara

Cinematography by
Hiro Narita

Film Editing by
Eric Albertson

Casting by
Lynn Stalmaster

Production Design by
Robert Kinoshita

Art Direction by
Douglas Freeman

Costume Design by
Aggie Guerard Rodgers

Production Management
Lope Yap Jr.	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jim Bloom	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Michael Evje	....	boom operator
Luther Greene	....	sound re-recording mixer
Art Rochester	....	production sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
William Maley	....	gaffer

Editorial Department
Vivien Hillgrove Gilliam	....	associate editor (as Vivien Hilgrove)

Other crew
Janet Healy	....	production assistant
Lope Yap Jr.	....	location manager

Production Companies

• Korty Films
• Universal TV

Distributors

• National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Korty Films

Movie Connections:

Featured in Slaying the Dragon (1988) (TV)

Overview of locations; over-long discussion of euphemistic language

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."