Bridges, Scarlet Leaves And Japanese War Brides

Aloha Hip Hapa Homeez,

Good news!

We’re moving ahead with our War Brides of Japan documentary. As you know, we’ve been on hiatus with this project for some time—but not as long as we’ve been with our feature narrative, Watermelon Sushi. Hey, all good things take time, you know…like fine wine, blah blah. Anyway, after creating a 30-second promo spot for the War Brides of Japan doc, we entered the Snipler competition at the New Media Film Festival and, ta da!, got selected as one of three finalists. The Snipler screenings take place on June 13 at the Landmark Theatre in West L.A. A special shout-out to The Tropicosmician for his input.

Here are links to the promo piece:

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJkujn1iek&feature=colike

OneTrueMedia:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=10ec2790247cf1e46bae38e&skin_id=701&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Facebook Fan Page:

http://www.facebook.com/WarBridesOfJapan

Meanwhile, we’re searching for Japanese war brides who’d like to be featured in our documentary. Even if she is no longer living, we want to tell her story. If you have stills or footage of a Japanese war bride, please contact us at watermelonsushi@me.com

Although wars are devastating, WWII remains a popular topic because of its far-reaching effects. Executive Order 9066 mandated that West Coast Japanese Americans, regardless of U.S. citizenry, leave their homes and possessions to live in barbed wired prison camps during the war. And, while Japanese nationalists required special permission to marry American servicemen and move to the U.S., American citizens of Japanese descent were still recovering from the effects of being incarcerated in their own country. The irony is that while one group of Japanese was punished for having Japanese ancestry, another group followed their husbands—former enemies of Japan—to the same country that had imprisoned their fellow Japanese.

This month’s Hip Hapa Homee is Kristina McMorris whose popular book, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, explores a relationship set in an internment camp. A little known fact is that some non-Japanese Americans lived alongside their Japanese American spouses in the camps. Here’s the link to Krsitina’s website:

http://www.kristinamcmorris.com/

Q: Have you always been interested in writing historical fiction?

A: Truthfully, up until several years ago, I didn't consider myself a reader, let alone a creative writer. (I don't admit this proudly, by the way. I've done a lot of catching up since then!) 

It all started with a Christmas present I was making for my family, a self-published cookbook featuring recipes my grandmother had collected and created over decades. While interviewing her for the biographical section, she began to talk about her courtship with my late grandfather. That's when I discovered, to my amazement, that they had dated only twice before getting married during World War II, and that their relationship had developed almost entirely through an exchange of letters. My grandma then went to her closet and retrieved a collection of every handwritten page he had mailed to her during the war. 

After leaving her house, I couldn't help but think about those letters, and I started to wonder how different their relationship might have been if their correspondence had been less than truthful. This thought soon became the premise of my debut novel, Letters from Home. And I've maintained my fascination with the era ever since! 

author Kristina McMorris

Q: Can you elaborate a little on the story of the two brothers that inspired you to write this book?

A: Years ago, an old family friend shared with me that he had fought for America while his brother served for Japan. I was captivated by the idea. But it wasn't until a decade later, when I'd found my calling as a writer, that I recalled his story and realized what an intriguing premise it would make for a novel. Combined with my undying love for the U.S. miniseries "North and the South" (perhaps more for Patrick Swayze in uniform than anything else), I set out to write my book. Then, in the midst of research, I happened across an obscure mention of roughly two hundred non-Japanese spouses who had chosen to live in the U.S. internment camps voluntarily. I called my agent that very day and said, "This is it. I have my story!"

Q: Your father is a Japanese immigrant, so I’m assuming he was not interned in the U.S. Did you speak with any former internees to help shape your story, or did you spend a lot of time researching?

A: Although my father was born a few years after WWII ended, his birthday, ironically, falls on December 7th, which of course is Pearl Harbor Day. I often joke that, for this reason, I should have foreseen long ago that I was destined to write WWII novels. 

As for research, while I love having actually learned the information, highlighting details in textbooks sounds as appealing to me as a root canal. (In other words, not a fun time.) What I do enjoy is hands-on experience. Needless to say, I was delighted when the Park Ranger at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, who suffered through my endless list of internment questions, invited me to attend their annual pilgrimage. (Come to think if it, maybe that was his way of finally shutting me up!) As a result, I had the great opportunity of talking to many people who were once interned. 

Similarly, when I contacted the Go For Broke Foundation, an organization devoted to educating people about Japanese American military service, they offered to arrange in-person interviews with seven WWII veterans who have since all received the Congressional Gold Medal. Bottom line, I've definitely been spoiled.

Q: Do you think you’d be as interested in this subject matter had you not yourself been part Japanese?

A: As much as I love true historical accounts, especially from wartime, I think I'd still have been interested in reading about the subject. My passion for researching and writing about the topic, however, unquestionably stems from my own heritage and personal ties to the culture. Being half Japanese, in particular, made me even more eager to explore a story in which the characters suddenly find themselves living between two worlds, not knowing exactly where they fit in--which is exactly how I myself recall often feeling during my teen years. 

Q: Your character, Maddie, is a violinist. Do you play any musical instruments? If not, how difficult was it for you to write about a musician?

A: As with most of my research, I relied on generous "experts" who made me look much smarter than I am! Although I used to play piano, I knew very little about the violin. Fortunately, an old friend from high school happens to be a violinist. She attended a top conservatory years ago and continues to perform in a symphony. She and my husband, who played violin as a kid, were immensely helpful. I also learned a great deal from watching performances on YouTube, from which I could study violinists' movements and positions, in addition to the actual sound of the pieces. 

Q: Your characters both experience difficulty being accepted by the other one’s family. Your mother is Caucasian, and your father Asian. Did they also have problems being accepted by each other’s family members? And, how did they meet?

A: My goodness, yes! My mother was the only daughter of a U.S. Navy man who served in the Pacific during the war, and my father was the youngest of seven children, born to a Japanese mother and father who were united through an arranged marriage. Therefore, my paternal grandmother had high hopes that my father would return to Kyoto permanently and settle into a "well-suited" Japanese marriage. After my parents met at Highline Community College in Washington State, and got married only six months later, my Japanese grandmother was outraged and openly shared her disapproval. For both sides of the family, I truly believe the existence of grandchildren helped change their views, and eventually my parents' marriage was wholly accepted. 

Q: What Japanese cultural traditions does your family practice?

A: Shoes are definitely off the minute we walk into the house! My two young sons--who proudly refer to themselves as being "a quarter ninja"--have been so brainwashed in this regard, they refuse to wear shoes at their friends' homes, even when the hosts insist that the practice is normal. Then again, I've rarely considered any aspect of my family "normal."

Q: Your story starts out in Los Angeles, and you yourself attended Pepperdine in Malibu. Where are some other places you’ve lived?

A: Wow, let's see... I was born in Washington State and lived in the suburbs of Portland Oregon most of my life. As you mentioned, I used to live in Malibu, after which I spent a year in Burbank. During my time at Pepperdine, I also spent a year in their overseas program in Florence Italy. (I still drool over those days of unlimited gelato and tiramisu.) Additionally, I've lived just outside of Philadelphia, as well as in Indiana when my husband was earning his MBA at Notre Dame. Only then did I fully comprehend the literal depths of "lake-effect" snow.

Q: How did you get your own talk show at age 9?

A: I was a bit of a shy kid early on, so my mother enrolled me in a local modeling/acting class to help boost my confidence. At the end of the six-week course, I heard about an audition for a new weekly kids program created by an ABC affiliate. My parents thought it would be a good experience for me to simply try out. At the audition, surrounded by a herd of stage parents and "seasoned" child actors, I quickly realized I had no clue what I was doing. This became even more apparent when, on cue, I rushed with my assigned co-host into the audition room, at which point we were supposed to plop down on our chairs, pretend to be running late for the show, smile at the cameras, and launch into our lines posted on the teleprompter. Well, as it turned out, a minor detail they neglected to mention was the fact that our chairs were on rollers. (You can sense where this is going, right?) After scurrying in, I plopped down on my chair with a smile and...flew right off the seat. I broke into laughter, hopped back onto my chair, and read the lines while recovering from my giggles. Next thing I knew, I'd landed the role of co-host, a job I kept for five years, until gracefully "retiring" in order to aid the primary goal of any American junior high kid: to blend. 

Rob

Thank you, Kristina!

Carol

Eva

Cassie

Julia

Ejiro

Teri

Hey, Hip Hapa Homeez, summer's almost here and it's an ideal time to take a book like Bridge of Scarlet Leaves to the beach.


Meanwhile, remember to like our Watermelon Sushi, Hapa*Teez and War Brides of Japan fan pages on Facebook. Follow watermelonsushi on Twitter, and find us just about anywhere under that tag. You can also request a membership to our Hip Hapa Homeez group page where we discuss topics of concern to multi-culti folks and transracial adoptees.

Hapa*Teez t-shirts was created to support the Watermelon Sushi film, so join our supporters pictured here.

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Half Kenneth Is All That, And Backed By Yoko Ono Lennon, Too!

Ken Ochiai’s American Film Institute (AFI) master’s thesis film is just 21 minutes in duration. Yet every second of those 21 minutes of celluloid is so engaging that it seems much longer.

Half Kenneth is the tale of two young hapa brothers who run away from the Manzanar War Relocation Camp in search of their white mother. After his Japanese father dies in camp, the oldest boy decides to find his mother rather than be banished to an orphanage. Although he attempts his secret mission alone, his younger brother insists on tagging along—tossing a monkey wrench into his well-laid plans.

Starring Oscar-winning actor Chris Tashima and long-time luminary Sab Shimono, and executive produced by Yoko Ono Lennon, Half Kenneth is being developed into a full-length feature film. Its grim depiction of camp life in 1945 is both authentic and dismal.

Check out the trailer then, read what Ken Ochiai has to say, following. That’s him in the pix below directing his young actor. A shot of the film poster is above, with another of the real life brothers as actors right here:

http://www.half-kenneth.com/index.html

Q: What’s a nice Japanese guy like you doing making movies in America?

A: I was born and raised in Tokyo. As soon as I graduated from high school, I went to NYU for summer school then transferred to Santa Monica Community College. I wanted to transfer to USC or NYU, but NYU films have a little more of an artistic message and my taste is more like Hollywood movies. I transferred to USC as an undergrad where I learned a general sense of filmmaking and shot a lot of my friends’ movies.

I started making movies at 12, in Japan, with a junior high school classmate. Since then I’ve been making movies, but USC was the first time I learned how to make movies.

Q: How do your parents feel about your career choice?

A: My father is a businessman who didn’t really want me to become a film director. The Asian style is that you don’t want your kids to become artists because being a film director in Japan is not considered a job. He even told me that it’s like being a gambler.

My parents agreed that if I got a master's degree at one of the top schools, and if I didn’t make director, maybe I could teach. So I made a promise when I was 16 that after I graduated from USC, I would look for a specific directing program.

At AFI, I learned the craft of directing, like how to communicate your vision to each department, what to say to actors, composers, and the cinematographer. To have a clear a vision is most important. You also have to communicate with your crew members.

Q: You speak English very well!

A: I studied English in junior high school in Japan, but when I first came here I didn’t speak English at all and, it was hard for me to direct people.

My first couple of years here, I tried not to make friends with Japanese and tried to use Japanese as little as possible. I tried to watch movies in English, read books and write in English, and forced myself to dream in English. Then, I made a lot of friends and asked them to correct my English if I said something weird or funny--you know, FOBish English.

NYU had a gym, and I had played high school basketball so I was able to make friends even though I didn’t speak English. Playing sports can be one of the tools for communicating with people. Because I was able to communicate through basketball, I started realizing filmmaking is my way of expressing myself.

I speak very SoCal English. I started with thinking in English then, talking to myself in English, and I started dreaming in English. I did a lot of shadowing. While driving in traffic, I repeated what the radio said, in the car so no one would have to listen to me.

Q: How did you get Yoko Ono Lennon to executive produce Half Kenneth?

A: We don’t really talk about her too much because she kind of wanted us to not use her name, because then it becomes Yoko Ono’s Half Kenneth instead of our Half Kenneth. There’s a long story about her involvement. It’s kind of a myth or a secret. Basically, long-story-short, our producer, Maya Kanehara, knew Yoko’s manager so we were able to send letters and a proposal.

Q: Your two young actors are really hapa. Was it hard to cast their roles?

A: We had a casting director, Yumi Takata, who was a casting associate for Letters from Iwo Jima. She knew a lot of kids that were mixed race, but was not able to find anyone who was Japanese Caucasian mixed.

Maya had a casting team put up advertising in all the Japanese markets. One was very well known to hapa kids in L.A. basketball leagues. Two weeks before production, we got a phone call from a mother who saw that advertisement. She sent us an email with pictures of her boys. Avery and Hunter looked exactly as we imagined for their parts.

I told them to bring a suitcase to the audition, and asked them to pack as if they were going to Manzanar. They packed very memorable stuff, and that’s when I decided we should go with those boys. It was the first time they ever acted, and they gave us an amazing performance.

Q: Both Chris Tashima and Sab Shimono are recognizable names. How did you convince them to be a part of an independent short?

A: They were actually very, very generous. I knew Chris since his short film Day of Independence. I was a production assistant for one day. I didn’t really get to talk to him, but I had a contact. I wrote a very passionate letter.

Chris said he wanted to meet at a coffee shop. We talked and he said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’ Sab was actually in a camp when he was four, and he knows all the details. He added so many layers to the story. That’s why I cast him, and I also used his voice in the beginning to explain what happened in the camps.

Q: In the bonus scenes where you’re shown on set, you appear to be very meticulous. What’s your directing style?

A: Sometimes I feel like I micromanage things too much. But I don’t know how can I describe my directing style. Directors I admire and whom I grew up watching their films include Steven Spielberg, David Lynch, Alexander Payne, Akira Kurosawa and Ozu.

It all comes down to a story that has the theme of a bond between people. It could be family or it could be friendship. This bond that they didn’t have in the beginning of the film, but through their experience we see they create this bond. That’s the kind of movie I like to direct.

But it’s true. I’m a little too meticulous about certain things, and spend a lot of time with crew members to see what exactly is going to be on screen.

Q: Half Kenneth is your AFI master’s project. When will it be a full-length feature?

A: I’m currently developing the feature film with my friend from USC. We are hoping that we can finish the first draft some time early next year. We co-wrote it as a short.

There are 28 films and 26 directors at AFI. Two directors get to do two thesis films. I was fortunate to get a second thesis film (the first was Lucky Lotus). I pitched Half Kenneth to producer Maya Kanehara who also wanted to do a story about a Japanese American internment camp. I came up with three stories and this was one that she liked.

There are some studios that want to read the script. But there are so many unsold scripts in this town that we don’t know what’s going to happen. Because the short won awards and got a lot of attention, the feature may get made some time next year.

We did sell the worldwide distribution rights for five years, and distribute to lot of places right now. But we haven’t found a way to sell the DVD’s in the U.S.

Q: There’s a poignant scene in the film where mourners place paper cranes on the father’s grave. Can you explain it?

A: We researched a lot of Japanese American books and interviewed camp survivors. The Japanese phrase shikata ga nai means ‘nothing can be done about it’. Even though it has a somewhat negative connotation, I take it as a positive attitude.

Some things you can’t do anything about. War was created. Japan has a lot of natural disasters. A lot of people accept those things, and make the best out of them.

People in the camps were suffering, but they tried to make a garden. Because they didn’t have flowers, they tried to make things out of things. The boys don’t have a father and their mother is gone, but they have each other. They did something about it together.

Domo arigato gozaimasu, Ken-san! We’re all looking forward to seeing more of your brilliant work. It’s especially encouraging for us mixies to be able to see real multiracial actors playing us. That’s been a controversial element of moviemaking now that more writers and directors are exploring the subject.

Speaking of movies with mixed race characters, don’t forget to join our Watermelon Sushi Fan page on Facebook. We’ll be putting up a new Watermelon Sushi website next year, so stay tuned. And, our Hip Hapa Homeez group page on Facebook is where we post interesting news articles about the multi-culti experience.

For the holidays, remember your favorite Hip Hapa Homee with a Hapa*Teez t-shirt.

Meanwhile, don’t forget to write…a comment, that is. We love hearing from you!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi