Redress Film to Debut at Skirball on Oct. 15

At 91 years old, Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga still keeps an entire archive of books, videos and research material on the Japanese American Incarceration experience. Many in the redress movement, including the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, National Council on Japanese American Redress, and the coram nobis team, used much of her research to make the case that the imprisonment of Japanese during World War II was unconstitutional.

“Right of Passage,” a film that explores the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, will have its West Coast debut on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Producer/director Janice D. Tanaka will answer questions following the screening that will take place from 1 to 3:15 p.m. in the Skirball Magnin Auditorium. Parking is free.

Tanaka said she took a “Rashomon” approach to the documentary, allowing participants to tell their own perspective on how redress was won.

“In making this film I wanted to present a neutral but comprehensive and honest picture of when and where the movement began, the forgotten players and factions, and fractures within a community labeled the ‘model minority,'” Tanaka said.

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 acknowledged the fundamental injustice of the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II in American concentration camps and paid each surviving internee $20,000 along with a government apology. Not many outside the Japanese American community know this story.

“Right of Passage” recounts the journey of a disenfranchised people who for 30 years buried their shame and indignation but then found the courage and strength to seek justice, which then snowballed into a lesson of the power of American democracy.

The documentary draws upon newly declassified documents, never-before-seen archival films, and interviews with players speaking for the first time. Featured are Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford; Senators Daniel Inouye, Spark Matsunaga and Alan Simpson; Congressmen Barney Frank, Norm Mineta and Bob Matsui; Ken Duberstein, former chief of staff to Reagan; and the men and women from the community who played a significant role in this Herculean effort.

Sponsored by the Plato Society of Los Angeles. To RSVP, call (310) 443-7633 or email office@theplatosociety.org.

For more information, visit the film’s Facebook page.