*Summarize the film 9066 to 9/11 America’s concentration camps then… and now. Critique the documentary; what can the film do to appeal to more than the average American Viewer.
The film 9066 to 9/11 America’s concentration camps, gives a brief and biased outline of how the United States used race a deciding factor when interviewing potential threats to the country as well as in determining who would be deported or contained within concentrations camps. After the attacks at Pearl Harbor, the US was mad at the Japanese, but because they were unable to directly attack the Japanese government who was responsible for the destruction, the US government responded by gathering as many Japanese American’s as they could and imprisoned them in concentration camps. Similarly, although no concentration camps were established, after the 9/11 attacks, the US government began questioning Muslim Americans and shortly thereafter they were deported. The film talks to people who experienced this repression and listens as they recount their experiences and the travesty’s of that era.
The documentary was interesting as it exposes the repressive goals and actions toward Muslims and Japanese. One interviewee said that even if they did comply with the US government’s requests and laws they were still treated poorly and put in concentration camps. This is a blatant example of racial discrimination brought on because a small percentage of people from their racial group chose to bomb Pearl Harbor. The film could have been longer and given the US government’s side as to why they chose to treat the Muslims and Japanese in the negative way that they did. It would have been a more educational documentary and would have been more credible of if the film makers had interviewed a variety of speakers and had set the documentary up as them telling a story. I didn’t like how the video jumped around, it needed to flow better and have more images and interviews. By doing that, it would make the story more compelling to US citizens because they would be able to see what was going on rather than being told by people that do not hold a very high position in government, or by people who haven’t proved their credibility. Another element to include would be statistics so that viewers have a number that they can mentally relate to; this would enhance the documentary and participants credibility as well. American’s understand numbers, as a way to quantifiably sort out information being presented to them.
