FILM TREATMENT
This film charts two journeys: renowned human
rights activist Yuri Kochiyama's lifetime of fighting for social justice and
filmmaker Marlan Warren's years of struggle to create a film that would tell
the story of Kochiyama's early days as a young woman in love behind the barbed
wire of Japanese American internment camps. It specifically focuses on a
morale-boosting letter-writing campaign between the young women imprisoned in
the camps and the Japanese American soldiers forced to fight in World War II to
prove their patriotism. The campaign was the brainchild of Yuri Kochiyama, then
known as "Mary Nakahara." And the women called themselves "The
Crusaders." Decades later, Kochiyama's picture would show up on the cover
of LIFE Magazine, holding Malcolm X's head as he lay dying, and she would come
to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless human rights activism.
On V-Day, two teenage girls, Rinko Shimasaki and Ruth Hirose, put together two scrapbooks with the Crusader memorabilia. One eventually found its way to the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and the other is falling apart at the bottom of Ruth's closet in 2009, when playwright/filmmaker Marlan Warren notifies her that she's producing a play that she's written, based on the contents of The Crusaders Scrapbook at JANM. The play debuts at The Marsh Theatre in San Francisco, and Ruth (married name "Ishizaki") attends with her longtime friend Yuri Kochiyama on opening night.
Right after the play closes, Warren begins shooting interviews with Kochiyama and Ishizaki, with the intention of melding the interviews with scenes from the play.
When Warren asks Yuri, "What would Mary Nakahara (her young self) think of Yuri Kochiyama (her adult self)?" Yuri answers: "Two different people totally!"
Warren sits with Ruth poring over the tattered, crumbling scrapbook. She asks Ruth why there's so much humor in the letters. Ruth answers: "In wartime, humor keeps you going."
In 2012, a third Crusader emerges: Patricia Goto Takeshita, who heard about the film production and contacts Warren to ask if she would pass along a memoir that Patricia has written about the unforgettable optimistic effect Yuri had on her in the camp when she was 11 years old and joined The Crusaders. She began writing the memoir when she was 80 years old, having lost track of "Mary Nakahara," not realizing she'd changed her name, and become a prominent public figure.
The other Crusader who put together the scrapbooks, Rinko Shimasaki (married name "Enosaki") now lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After years of negotiations, Warren finally arranges for a shoot on Rinko's 90th birthday. Her grandson and his girlfriend shoot an extensive interview, including Rinko reading from her diary about the evacuation to the camp. In the end, they inform Warren that they've changed their minds about their initial contracts, and want to waive their fees in exchange for owning the footage, and allowing Warren to borrow it for free.
Throughout this period, Yuri has an 88th birthday party that is celebrated in high style at a center in San Francisco. She was deeply connected to art and artists, as well as activists and educators. They celebrate her life on a stage in an auditorium. Her great-granddaughter reads "Yuri's Creed"--a list that declares a vow "never to break one link of friendship." This is intercut with archival footage of Yuri as a young optimistic woman in the camp, patiently waiting for the man she loved to come home from the war and marry her.
The film winds up at the 2013 Manzanar Pilgrimage where Warren interviews a woman who was a child in the Manzanar internment camp, and records a Muslim woman who recalls the support Muslims received from the Japanese American community after 9/11, when there was government talk about forcing American Muslims into concentration camps.
We cut back to Warren asking Kochiyama: "What drives you?"
Kochiyama replies: "Racism still exists...Oppression still exists...and we have to keep fighting."
Now we see the program from Yuri Kochiyama's Memorial Service, and hear the actress who portrayed her in the play, quoting from Yuri's V-Day letter to the soldiers: "How will you recognize us? Just look for someone who is fighting for something bigger than themselves."
On V-Day, two teenage girls, Rinko Shimasaki and Ruth Hirose, put together two scrapbooks with the Crusader memorabilia. One eventually found its way to the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and the other is falling apart at the bottom of Ruth's closet in 2009, when playwright/filmmaker Marlan Warren notifies her that she's producing a play that she's written, based on the contents of The Crusaders Scrapbook at JANM. The play debuts at The Marsh Theatre in San Francisco, and Ruth (married name "Ishizaki") attends with her longtime friend Yuri Kochiyama on opening night.
Right after the play closes, Warren begins shooting interviews with Kochiyama and Ishizaki, with the intention of melding the interviews with scenes from the play.
When Warren asks Yuri, "What would Mary Nakahara (her young self) think of Yuri Kochiyama (her adult self)?" Yuri answers: "Two different people totally!"
Warren sits with Ruth poring over the tattered, crumbling scrapbook. She asks Ruth why there's so much humor in the letters. Ruth answers: "In wartime, humor keeps you going."
In 2012, a third Crusader emerges: Patricia Goto Takeshita, who heard about the film production and contacts Warren to ask if she would pass along a memoir that Patricia has written about the unforgettable optimistic effect Yuri had on her in the camp when she was 11 years old and joined The Crusaders. She began writing the memoir when she was 80 years old, having lost track of "Mary Nakahara," not realizing she'd changed her name, and become a prominent public figure.
The other Crusader who put together the scrapbooks, Rinko Shimasaki (married name "Enosaki") now lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia. After years of negotiations, Warren finally arranges for a shoot on Rinko's 90th birthday. Her grandson and his girlfriend shoot an extensive interview, including Rinko reading from her diary about the evacuation to the camp. In the end, they inform Warren that they've changed their minds about their initial contracts, and want to waive their fees in exchange for owning the footage, and allowing Warren to borrow it for free.
Throughout this period, Yuri has an 88th birthday party that is celebrated in high style at a center in San Francisco. She was deeply connected to art and artists, as well as activists and educators. They celebrate her life on a stage in an auditorium. Her great-granddaughter reads "Yuri's Creed"--a list that declares a vow "never to break one link of friendship." This is intercut with archival footage of Yuri as a young optimistic woman in the camp, patiently waiting for the man she loved to come home from the war and marry her.
The film winds up at the 2013 Manzanar Pilgrimage where Warren interviews a woman who was a child in the Manzanar internment camp, and records a Muslim woman who recalls the support Muslims received from the Japanese American community after 9/11, when there was government talk about forcing American Muslims into concentration camps.
We cut back to Warren asking Kochiyama: "What drives you?"
Kochiyama replies: "Racism still exists...Oppression still exists...and we have to keep fighting."
Now we see the program from Yuri Kochiyama's Memorial Service, and hear the actress who portrayed her in the play, quoting from Yuri's V-Day letter to the soldiers: "How will you recognize us? Just look for someone who is fighting for something bigger than themselves."
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