Center for Asian American Media

This powerful documentary shares the experiences, cultural and familial issues, and the long internalized grief and shame felt by six Japanese Americans who were only children when they were incarcerated in concentration camps during World War II. Of the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent who were interned, more than half were children. This video program is the result of a three-year project by Dr. Satsuki Ina, a university professor and family therapist, who has been conducting a series of three-day workshops for over ten years for former fellow internees. With the expertise of community-conscious filmmakers, she was able to film a workshop retreat in order to share the profound and proven healing experience with other Japanese Americans and the greater community at large. Unlike any other internment film, CHILDREN OF THE CAMPS examines how this early trauma manifests itself in their adult lives.

** Recommended for high school grades 11 and up; contains intense scenes from adult group therapy sessions with brief, explicit language that is censored.

“…this fine film…presents an interesting, seldom seen aspect of the war and how it continues to affect us more than 50 years later.”

- Library Journal

“This video is…compelling as survivors discuss painful memories, often clashing over their assessments of what it’s like to live in a country they feel has rejected them… At video’s end, survivors liken themselves to the driftwood they find at the edge of the ocean; they have weathered the storms, and endured.”

- Video Librarian

Recognition
National PBS Broadcast
Chicago Asian American Film Festival

Additional Resources
Children of the Camps Website »
Children of the Camps Teacher's Guide »

Related Films
From a Silk Cocoon

College/Institution

K-12/Public Library/Community Group