ONE FIGHTING IRISHMAN

Deep gratitude to all of our community organizations for the work that they lead. Special thanks to JACL for their help in promoting this program.

The film focuses on the little-known story of San Francisco attorney Wayne M. Collins and his passionate defense of Japanese Americans who suffered under extreme duress at the Tule Lake Segregation Center, considered the worst of the WWII concentration camps. Not only did he come forward to defend more than 5,500 American citizens who eventually renounced their citizenship, he was one of the few attorneys who came to their defense while some were being held in a prison-within-the-prison for up to 10 months. One of the people he rescued from deportation was narrator George Takei’s mother, Fumiko Takei. Were it not for Wayne Collins, Takei would probably not be an American today. This unsung hero was destined to helping others as he was himself an orphan who suffered from an extremely troubled background to go on to become a successful civil rights attorney.

Content Advisory: Profanity

Credits
Writer: Sharon Yamato
Producer: Sharon Yamato
Director of Photography: Evan Kodani
Editor: Evan Kodani, Mike and Julia McCoy (Tandem Media)
Composer: Dave Iwataki
Sound Designer: Jon K.Y. Oh
Music: Dave Iwataki

Plays in

MANZANAR TO TULE LAKE

Take a sonic and visual journey from Manzanar to Tule Lake, through the works of VC Film Fest alums Ann Kaneko & Sharon Yamato.