"And Then They Came for Us"

featuring George Takei

Missed the Sacramento Premiere?

Close to 800 attended!
Buy the DVD.
San Francisco showing of new longer version October 15, 2017.
Video of panel discussion on SAPFF's Facebook page.

News coverage

Sacramento Bee article by Steve Magagnini
Outword Magazine article by Pamela Jones
NikkeiWest article
Sacramento News & Review article by Jeff vonKaenel
Sacramento Lawyer article by Yoshinori Himel, see page 30 in the November-December Issue

What's wrong with calling it "internment"?

Americans' Misuse of "Internment," 14 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 797 (2016)

As national leaders have advocated building walls against Mexican immigrants, raised the specter of a Muslim registry, and instituted an immigration ban against people from Muslim majority countries, they have cited the race-based mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II as "precedent." Social justice filmmaker Abby Ginzberg’s And Then They Came for Us (trailer: thentheycamedoc.com/about) documents the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, one of the worst violations of civil liberties in American history.

To justify the incarceration, the U.S. government lied to the Supreme Court about an asserted espionage danger. No Japanese American was ever convicted or accused of espionage so as to justify the incarceration.

In this 75th anniversary year of the 1942 Executive Orders signed by President Roosevelt, the film uses photos by Dorothea Lange and others to document the damage these orders did to 120,000 people, two-thirds of whom were American citizens. Featuring George Takei, who was incarcerated, and others who protested the incarceration, And Then They Came for Us demonstrates the importance of speaking out against today's efforts to exile DACA children, to build walls, to exclude and register Muslim Americans, to demonize Mexicans, Jews, journalists, climate scientists, and transgender service members, and to elevate violent Klansmen, avowed Nazis, and racial terrorists onto the same moral plane as protesters of good conscience.

Knowing our history is the first step toward "Never Again." In these dark times, And Then They Came for Us is a call to remembrance and positive action.