Original upload date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:43:12 GMT
Clip from documentary-in-progress "What did you do in the war, Mommy?: Kochiyama's Crusaders." Produced by Marlan Warren and Chong Lee (director). This segment was shot by Chong Lee. Actor Jean Fran
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co performs one of his monologues in the play "Bits of Paradise" for activist Yuri Kochiyama at her home in Oakland.
The film grew out of Marlan Warren's play which she produced and directed at San Francisco's Marsh Theatre Nov.-Dec. '08 as a showcase of excerpts. Based on letters between the Japanese American girls and women interned in the U.S. concentration camps and the Japanese American soldiers fighting in World War II. At age 20, Ms. Kochiyama orchestrated the letter-writing campaign when she was known as "Mary Nakahara" to her fellow internees. It began at the Del Mar Assembly Center, spread to all the camps and was kept going until the end of the war.
Opening night, Ms. Kochiyama attended the play along with one of the youngest Crusaders who had actually made the scrapbooks. (see "Bits of Paradise" on another channel).
In this scene, 87-year old Yuri has just finished reading this same letter before Jean surprises her and gives her a private performance. Special thanks to Lindsey Myers for her editing skills that made this clip possible.