[asiacouncil] Japanese Film Screening: Our Lost Years

[David L Starling]

Forwarded Message:



Georgia Southern University is offering another Japanese film screening at Armstrong campus this fall. The film is about the Japanese internment camps of WWII. It will start from 6:30pm on 9/26.

Sincerely,



Email: nkolbe at georgiasouthern.edu<mailto:nkolbe at georgiasouthern.edu>


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Teresa Winterhalter <twinterhalter at georgiasouthern.edu<mailto:twinterhalter at georgiasouthern.edu>>
Date: Fri, Aug 2, 2019 at 2:46 PM
Subject: Invitation to East Coast premier of Our Lost Years


Hi all,
You may not know about the Mark Finlay Memorial Lecture yet, but I wanted to get an early note to you about it, in the hopes that you may be able to put in on your calendars and spread the news among the members of your departments.

This lecture series was established to honor Dr. Mark Finlay's service, memory, and legacy to the Armstrong campus. Dr. Finlay passed away in a tragic car accident 2013, having served as the Associate Dean in the (then) College of Liberal Arts for over ten years. Mark joined the faculty here after graduating with his Ph.D. in History from Iowa State University 1992. He founded the University's Honors Program in 1996 and served as its director until 2004. He was the author of hundreds of journal articles and the Theodore Soloutos Memorial Prize winning book Growing American Rubber: Strategic Plants and the Politics of National Security. Mark had a deep interest in using History to improve the condition of humankind. He had a broad intellectual curiosity and wanted us to be exposed to the work of important scholars in an array of subject areas. He felt strongly that Southeast Georgia could benefit from introducing academic and artistic perspectives that exceed its provincial environs.

We chose this year's featured "lecture" to honor so many of Mark academic commitments. On Thursday, 9/26 we are bringing in Lane Nishikawa who is the producer and director of a new documentary OUR LOST YEARS, which examines the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II and the ten year fight for redress and reparations.Mr. Nishikawa has toured his plays and films to over 75 cities across the U.S., Canada and Europe, but this will be his first trip to the deep southern part of our country. The film is shot in seven cities, including two internment camps of WWII, and he interviews over 45 Japanese American internees, political and community leaders, and representatives from communities who have suffered and faced racial prejudice.

The film includes former Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta, former California Congressman, Michael Honda, former National Director for Redress of National JACL, John Tateishi, former National JACL Presidents, S. Floyd Mori and Kenneth Inoue, Go For Broke National Education Center Executive Director, Mitchell Maki, National Japanese American Historical Society Executive Director, Rosalyn Tonai, former Executive Director of the Coalition of American-Islamic Relations, Hanif Mohebi, and Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Amanda Susskind.

OUR LOST YEARS was made possible by a grant from the National Park Service - Japanese American Confinement Sites Program. After the signing of H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which was the official apology to the Japanese American community for the internment during WWII, this program was formed to educate the American public about the unjust incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans in 1942 and the military service of our brave Nisei soldiers of the 100th/442nd Regiment and the Military Intelligence Service of the U.S. Army. Unfortunately, the current administration under President Donald Trump, has cut this important federal funding after 2020.

We chose to bring in this documentary to honor Mark's belief that the Japanese internment camps constitute a vastly important, but often not fully studied, era in American history, and it is one that our selection committee believes holds chilling parallels to our current use of detention centers for refugees seeking entrance to the United States.

In case, you'd like a peek at the trailer of OUR LOST YEARS, here is the link:
https://youtu.be/uoVop_jCRDM<https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FuoVop_jCRDM&data=02%7C01%7Cdstarlin%40valdosta.edu%7Cf8a7bf663d374f6613d008d7322bb8ff%7C25a5d3408abc4053b4bddc1213280353%7C0%7C1%7C637033035703070538&sdata=OdlFUFXBOfT8VDMsrQmGQNo726GKZjfTWaNMHBbdu1o%3D&reserved=0>

Over 120 faculty, friends, and community members have donated to the lecture fund, and many of them will be in attendance on the 26th.  It would be wonderful if you would be able to greet them.

In addition to the donors and other community members who will be in attendance, we have also invited the Atlanta-based Consul General of Japan, Mr. Shinozuka Takashi, and the Executive Director of Educational Outreach in his office, Mr. Yoshi Domoto, to join us for the screening. Consul General Takashi and  Mr. Domoto will also be joining Mr. Nishikawa, Kelly Applegate (Mark Finlay's widow), her sons, and a few select donors in the President's Dining Room at 5:00 pm just before the screening for a small reception and meet and greet. It would be a great honor if you and your significant others could join us for that as well.

I know this note is long, so thank you for your patience. I'll be sending a formal paper invite soon, but I wanted to get this on your radar screens as soon as possible.
All best,

Teresa Winterhalter
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Humanities
Professor of English
Armstrong Campus, Georgia Southern University
Savannah, GA 31419
912.344.3135

"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."
--Henry James


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