AMERICAN PASTIME
I totally saw something cool this weekend during my Sunday football watching binge. On the ESPN Classic channel (Ch 208 for Directv peeps), I spotted a film I saw at the Visual Communication Asian American Film Festival a few years back. The flick was called American Pastime. Anyone ever heard or seen it yet?
The story takes place at the Topaz War Relocation Camp in Utah in 1941. It was a camp which housed thousands of people during the Japanese American internment during World War II. The plot starts after the Executive Order 9066 that FDR signed. For those who don’t know about E.O. 9066, it was when the “government” got scared that the Japanese Americans were some sorta secret spies. And basically forced them to move out of their homes, live in a camp in the middle of the desert, with fences closing them in, with US Army soldiers patrolling it. WOW!
In real life, the reasoning for this was that the US government felt that they would be in danger with all the tension happening. So they were keeping them safe…BUT if you read more about it, the turret guns mounted at the edge of the camps were pointing in and not out. HOW DOES ONE PROTECT THE CAMP WHEN THE GUNS ARE POINTED INTO THE CAMP. HMMM.
It also intertwines some of the story where the oldest son enlists in the Army, as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The unit became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients, earning the nickname “The Purple Heart Battalion”. Does anyone remember the saying “Go For Broke”? If not, you should read about it more here.
Anyways, the hook on the movie is that the prisoners, I MEAN the Japanese Americans start their own baseball league in the camp and makes the story more universal to all audiences. The youngest son ends up being this badass pitcher which I related to the most. Not being an All Star pitcher, but having two cultures collide and trying to just be who he is, himself. I was just surprised and amazed that it was on ESPN. I find that to be quite the accomplishment($$$). Maybe if you look for it, you can tivo it and watch it sometime.
Directed by Desmond Nakano. Starring Aaron Yoo (21, Wackness, Disturbia), Leonardo Nam (Finishing the Game, Tokyo Drift, Traveling Pants 2), and Gary Cole (Pineapple Express, Breach)
Popularity: 8% [?]
Tags: aaron yoo, american pastime, baseball, japanese internment camp, leonardo nam, topaz
To further your research on this issue, here is my review of the movie:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R329NZ3LPPS0N4
And a lot of original source material can be found here:
http://home.comcast.net/~eo9066/Intro.html
Table of Contents:
http://home.comcast.net/~eo9066/Contents.html
Thanks Wes. You would be surprised the amount of people, esp Asian American’s, who haven’t even heard about the 442nd. American Pastime is a perfect film to create awareness and celebrate great art.