Film Introduction

The large cover photo of this site is a young teenage girl standing with her arms around her grandfather and her mother on either side. The introductory story is shown as 4 stops around a rotating wheel. A button labeled with a right arrow is animated with a pulsing glow to direct your attention; it has the words "Start Here". Pressing this right arrow will rotate the wheel clockwise to advance the story by one step. (Whereas the left arrow button rotates the wheel backward one step.) On the fourth step, you will watch a short film, which is the centerpiece of this educational site.

シカゴ 物語

Resettlement

Chicago Story

After Japanese American incarceration
came mandatory resettlement.

Incarceration

During World War II, the United States government forced the Yamamoto family to leave their farm in California and live behind barbed wire in a concentration camp in Arizona. The Yamamotos were among 120,000 people of Japanese descent imprisoned during the war solely because of their ancestry, without due process or regard for citizenship rights.

Diagram of the lower 48 US states which labels the distance from Watsonville, California, to Poston, Arizona

Resettlement

When the war was almost over, the U.S. government permitted the Yamamotos to leave the concentration camp. But instead of letting them return home to the West Coast, the government “resettled” them to Chicago and demanded they reject their Japanese language, culture, and traditions.

Diagram of the lower 48 US States which labels the distance from Watsonville, to Poston, to Chicago, Illinois

What happens next?

What’s it like to be forced to leave your home, deny your heritage, and start over? Follow Mary and her family as they navigate life in Chicago.

A black and white still image shows a young teenage girl peering out from behind a rack of clothes, with a Play button superimposed upon the image

Tap above to watch the film
[TRT: 16 min. before credits ]