REMOVED BY FORCE + BASEBALL BEHIND BARBED WIRE + BENKYODO

December 7, 1941. The nation of Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. The United States enters World War II. Fueled by unfounded suspicions of disloyalty and wartime hysteria, over 2,200 Americans of Japanese Ancestry from Hawaiʻi were incarcerated in camps in both Hawaiʻi and the U.S. continent. At the same time another egregious crime was committed by the US government. About 1,500 Japanese Americans in Hawaiʻi – were forcibly removed from their homes and businesses. At gunpoint, military officials stormed into their homes and ordered their removal. These Japanese Americans were not incarcerated, but many lost their homes and never returned to their neighborhoods after the war ended. For over fifty years, these 1,500 Americans of Japanese ancestry in Hawai’i kept silent about the violation of their civil rights. REMOVED BY FORCE memorializes the unique and relatively unknown experiences of the 1,500 Americans of Japanese ancestry from 23 geographic areas in Hawai‘i who were evicted from their homes, but not interned, during World War II. Their quest for redress is told from personal interviews and stories by affected individuals, Honolulu Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) lawyers, volunteers and government officials. This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. PLAYS WITH: BASEBALL BEHIND BARBED WIRE DIRECTOR:Yuriko Gamo Romer BENKYODO: THE LAST MANJU SHOP IN J-TOWN DIRECTOR: Akira Boch, Tadashi Nakamura