"Conscience and the Constitution" premieres at the VC FilmFest 2000

05.23 - Posted by Editor

Above: Draft resister Frank Emi and filmmaker Frank Abe

"Conscience and the Constitution" premieres at the VC FilmFest 2000

By Greg Pak   5.23.00 -- Seattle journalist Frank Abe premiered his hour long documentary "Conscience and the Constitution" Tuesday night to a full house in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo as part of the VC FilmFest 2000. Links VC FilmFest   "Conscience and the Constitution" website   Post your comments on the Message Boards!       With a straightforward mix of interviews, narration, dramatic readings, and historical footage, Abe's doc tells the story of the Fair Play Committee, a group of young Japanese American men interned during World War II who refused to be drafted until the United States government restored their rights as citizens and released them from the camps.     Inevitably, Abe's sturdy film will be compared to Emiko Omori's lyrical Sundance winner "Rabbit in the Moon," which addresses similar subject matter from a much more personal point of view. Although it may lack the grace and emotional depth of Omori's film, "Conscience and the Constitution" serves as a perfect companion piece, presenting a detailed history of the Japanese American draft resistance movement, complete with colorful heroes and villians.     The chief heavy of the picture is Mike Masaoka, spokesman for the Japanese American Citizens League. As the film explains, the second-generation, assimilationist membership of the JACL supported the internment process, encouraged government efforts to recruit and then draft soldiers from the camps, and interfered whenever possible with the efforts of internees to speak out against their treatment or get legal assistance.     The good guys of the film are men like Frank Emi, who formed the Fair Play Committee to protest the drafting of internees, and James Omura, editor of the Rocky Mountain Shimpo newspaper, one of the only journalists to write critically of the internment and drafting of Japanese Americans.     As the story of the draft resisters comes to a head, we learn that the JACL dissuaded the ACLU from assisting the Fair Play Committee and maneuvered to get Omura charged with sedition. And many years later, we see Masaoka continuing to villify the protestors and a local JACL chapter voting against a movement to apologize to the resisters for their treatment during the war.     "I did what my conscience told me to do and I think all good American citizens should protest when they feel their constitutional and civil rights have been violated," said one of the surviving resisters in the Q&A following the screening. Abe's film is full of similar curt and confident proclamations.     But the biggest audience response came when the film tells the story of a Japanese American war hero named Kuroki who was sent on a tour of the camps to criticize the draft protestors. Interviewed years later, one of the resisters sums up the visit by saying, "We just though he was an asshole for coming into the camp."     With so much history to cover, spontaneous moments such as these are a little too infrequent. And occasionally, the film misses opportunities to probe its characters as deeply as it could. As one example, we hear the war hero Kuroki speak in a tone nearing regret of the way he ranted against the resisters during the war. But we never hear him talk of how he feels about them now.     The film closes with a group of resisters being honored on stage for their stand during the war. The men turn to the large photo of themselves as young men and search for their faces. "I can't seem to find myself," says one of the men, and the audience laughs. It's a wonderful cinematic moment which beautifully reveals the remarkable self-effacement, quiet humor, and great confidence which form the character of these men -- and it made me wish the film had given us more such spontaneous moments of revelation throughout.     Nonetheless, the doc is a thoroughly watchable piece of untold history which should find a well-deserved home on public television and in educational distribution.     In the Q&A following the screening, one of the resister's daughters, now a lawyer, told a story of meeting Mike Masaoka many years later. When he realized she was the daughter of one of the draft resisters, he said, "I told them they could never win." The woman said, "At that moment I knew that Mr. Masaoka never understood the Constitution. Because it's not if you win or lose -- it's whether you ask the question."     She might have added that in some ways the resisters did win -- they were pardoned by Truman in 1947. And now they have films like "Conscience and the Constitution" to tell their side of the story. Comments Post a comment Name: Email Address: URL: Comments: Remember info?