Center for Asian American Media

Released from the concentration camps after World War II, most Japanese Americans returned to poor neighborhoods like South Central Los Angeles to rebuild their shattered lives. Growing up in the ’50s and coming of age in the tumultuous ’60s, children paid the steepest price for their parents’ silent assimilation. Many turned to gangs, drugs and, ultimately, suicide.

WHEN YOU’RE SMILING, is a personal story of the director’s own family’s struggle during the harsh post-camp years. She offers the first comprehensive account of the resettlement of a community which not only seemed to put its unjust incarceration behind it but also rose above it. In reality, class, race, religion, stereotyping and familial distance caused a serious identity crisis.

This film shatters the model minority myth surrounding Japanese Americans, exposing the deadly legacy of internment through the rite of passage of a generation who walked an emotional tightrope to discover their heritage.

College/Institution

Note for K-12/Public Library/Community Groups

If there is no discount pricing listed, please contact us.

For details and for previews, email distribution@asianamericanmedia.org
or call (415) 552-9550.