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VIDEO

Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story

26 minutes. Directed by Casey Peek and Irum Shiekh.
Available in VHS or multilingual (Japanese and English) DVD formats.
Coming soon: Spanish version

Through first-person narrative, archival footage and other forms of media, Peek Media produced a documentary on the life of Art Shibayama, a San Jose resident originally from Lima, Peru, who was taken by the US officials at the age of thirteen. Art’s experiences reveal not only the hidden saga of the interned Japanese Peruvians, but continue to address the legacy of civil liberties and human rights doctrine.

Weaving the immigrant story into the overall internment and redress history, Art's story portrays the quintessential American hero: the common immigrant who, through forces beyond his control, is reluctantly propelled into the redress struggle as an activist and, ultimately, defender of the constitution and champion of human rights.

Providing the backbone of the documentary, Art's story is inter-cut with testimonies from former internees, both Japanese American and Japanese Latin American, as well as others involved in the redress movement. This approach tells a personal account, provides a master narrative of the overall story and highlights how lives were impacted by resettlement following WWII.

Special offer:

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Hidden Internment + Caught In Between: What to Call Home in Times of War

As the Arab, Muslim, South Asian communities face post-911 repression, Caught in Between captures Muslim and Japanese American communities revisiting the dark days of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Interviews with former internees, their children, religious leaders, citizens and immigrants from Japanese and Muslim American communities are woven together to make crucial connections between then and the current “War on Terrorism.” Caught in Between tells a story about people who have been made the enemy, questions “freedom” in the USA, and captures the power of people standing together to fight for civil liberties and human rights.