The Internment Of Japanese-Americans In Family Gathering, By Lise Yasui

The internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States during World War II is a historical event that is not only well documented, but is also ridden with the personal experiences of 1st (issei) and 2nd (nissei) generation Japanese-Americans. Family Gathering follows Lise Yasui’s discovery of her own family history, experiencing setbacks as well as cathartic moments of knowledge through her research as part of the 3rd generation—sansei. In this, she is able to reconstruct an image of a grandfather she had never met. Over the approximately one hour runtime of the film, viewers are asked to listen to her family’s experiences as an American immigrant family in the early 20th century. Yasui reconstructs an image of her grandfather, Masuo Yasui,

It is eventually revealed that this memory never actually occurred, and Masuo Yasui had passed away before Lise could ever meet him. She had made up this visit and speaking with her grandfather late into the night through the memories of Masuo in the home movies that her father would show her growing up. Thus, these homevideos become essential to not only her understanding of her own family’s history in America as a sansei member, but to viewers as well. However, what truly allows Lise and viewers of her journey to come to an understanding of the Yasui history beyond what Cassandra Van Buren describes as “the version of family history her parents want her to know and remember,” are the personal interviews that she

Lise uncovers her own family’s experience with the incarceration of Japanese-Americans. Although there is narration of letters written directly by Masuo from when he was incarcerated separately as a Japanese-American leader, the retelling of stories by the family of their own experiences become essential to discerning the entire picture. Homer states that his “father disappeared” (19:38), who was taken away 5 days after Pearl Harbor as a potentially dangerous individual. He was incarcerated away from his family for 4 years and 24 days. They talk about visiting him at camp and seeing him for the first time in years through a fence, about his anxieties returning back to “normal life” as a perpetual enemy of the state despite his attempts to continue returning to his community, and finally, his suicide at age 71 (43:25). Lise states that it took her father 28 years to tell her about the reason behind Masuo’s death; had it not been for these interviews and Lise’s hunt to uncover more about her personal past, it is unknown when she would have found this information