Media for social change

This film was created by English & Social Studies students at Lucerne Secondary School New Denver, as part of their curriculum in learning about the history of the Japanese Canadian Internment during WWII.

The following is their Artist Statement:

We want to show through a youth perspective the heritage Japanese Canadians had in building our community. What really stood out for us is the impact that the internment had, not only on the Japanese already living in Canada, but the mark they have made in our community as a result.

Despite the trauma and suffering they were put through, in the end, we were blessed to be given pieces of their culture and their story to embrace across Canada.

Memorials such as the Nikkei Centre and the Kohan Gardens were placed here in New Denver by the Japanese Canadian community, as a gift for Canadians to experience first-hand how even the worst of situations can become something so powerful and beautiful in the end. As the New Denver Kyowakai Society say, we must all be “peacefully working together”.