Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story

Stand Up For Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story (2004) is an educational narrative short film, co-produced by Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR) and Visual Communications (VC).[1]

Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story
Directed byJohn Esaki
Produced byAmy E. Kato
Written byJohn Esaki
Starring
Music byDave Iwataki
Quetzal
CinematographyDean Hayasaka
Edited byGail Yasunaga
Production
company
Release date
  • 2004 (2004)
Running time
33 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Background

When 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly evacuated from the West Coast of the United States during World War II, Ralph Lazo, a 16-year-old of Mexican American and Irish American descent from Downtown Los Angeles followed his Japanese American friends, neighbors and classmates in to the Manzanar Japanese American internment camp.[2] He remained in the U.S. internment camp until 1944, when he was drafted in to the army,[3] and served in the Pacific theater.[4] Not many beyond the Japanese American community knew of his story, inspiring Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR) to partner with Visual Communications to create an educational film to teach his cross-cultural story in the classroom.[5] Funded by grants from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program,[1][6] the half-hour drama was shot at the Manzanar National Historic Site, and in Los Angeles, and completed in 2004.

Plot

In 1941, Ralph Lazo is a 16-year-old student at Belmont High School, an ethnically mixed school in downtown Los Angeles. When Pearl Harbor is bombed, Ralph's Japanese American friend, Jimmy Matsuoka, and his family are forced to sell their belongings and evacuate to a remote concentration camp. Ralph surprises his friends at the train station as they are about to depart for Manzanar, a relocation center in central California. He joins them for the 5-hour train ride, the three-year stay, and a lifelong friendship.

Cast

References
  1. Ralph Lazo - A True Friend Archived 2007-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Stand Up for Justice: The Story of Ralph Lazo
  3. Memories of Manzanar.”For some people, « Guavalog: “They said this day would never come.”
  4. Reading: The Incarceration Years Archived 2009-10-02 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Stand Up for Justice:The Ralph Lazo Story". National Coalition for Civil Rights and Redress. January 2004. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
  6. California State Library - CCLPEP Advisory Committee
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