Alan Kondo

When an underwater ocean lab is lost in a earthquake, an advanced submarine is sent down to find it and encounters terrible danger.

The film looks back at the life of a man named Oda and other Japanese Americans through the decades as they face great challenges and joys living in the United States.

This black-and-white documentary weaves scenes of Japanese American poet and professor Lawson Inada’s life with his writing. Titled after one of his poems, I TOLD YOU SO follows Inada to Fresno, California for a childhood reunion. Shots of his multicultural childhood neighborhood show downtown graffiti, bars, and the Nisei Barber Shop. Inada runs into his aunt, one of the subjects of his poems where she asks, “All this identity thing. What is it you’re looking for?” Inada’s answer is in his poem, “Nightsongs in Asian America” that addresses the active residence to World War II incarceration and his relationship with his son.

A united front of Japanese American organizations, with the support of Japanese American legislators and the Congressional Black Caucus, uses grassroots organizing to successfully win reparations for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.