An educational program (film + interactive site) to learn about the justice and reparation movement for Japanese Americans wrongfully incarcerated during WWII
Currently in development.
Reckoning with Redress (RWR) is a cinematic digital history project that explores the history of the Japanese American Redress Movement, and its promises and consequences for present-day reparations efforts by other marginalized communities. This open educational resource will interweave the preservation of Japanese American history with the broader community-driven quest for learning, racial justice, and healing that is often missing from standard curricula.
RWR will delve into Chicago’s significant role in the Japanese American Redress Movement, particularly highlighting the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) hearings held at Northeastern Illinois University in 1981. These hearings were pivotal in the national redress efforts, as they gathered testimonies from Japanese American community members who courageously shared their experience and consequences of being wrongfully incarcerated during WWII. By focusing on these Chicago-specific events, RWR will provide a localized context that underscores the city’s contribution to the broader movement and connects to Black American reparations efforts today.
RWR builds upon the foundations laid by its predecessors, The Orange Story (2015) and Resettlement: Chicago Story (2022), which both combine an original short historically-based film with an immersive learning website loaded with primary and secondary sources curated by leading scholars and educators. Our cinematic digital history projects are community-driven at every step of creation, from ideation, research, and story development to film production, learning curation, and distribution to the public.
As the final piece in this trilogy, RWR is a culmination of over eight years of dedicated effort and innovation, and the pinnacle of Full Spectrum Education's journey in developing the most accessible and engaging model for cinematic open educational resources. By diverging from standard film and curriculum development norms, RWR will combine the best practices and standards from both fields by embracing innovative pedagogy and community based storytelling.
Full Spectrum Features NFP
Ashley Cheyemi McNeil, PhD
Brian Tee
Eugene Sun Park, Jason Matsumoto, Brian Tee
Amy E. Powell
Clara Bergamini
Lien Tran, MFA
Jasmine Alinder, PhD · UC Santa Cruz
Sarah Sheya, Ed.D · JusticexDesign
Steven Harris
Ashley Howdeshell
Alice Yang, PhD
This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to:
Office of Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240
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