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15th Annual Films of Remembrance | Feb 21 & 22 in SF and San Jose
Selections range from creative animated or narrative shorts, to impactful short and feature-length documentaries, with the Showcase Presentation of the award-winning film Third Act. Some films even add some humor.
“At a time when the history of people of color is being sanitized, and celebrations of our experiences are being erased from federal government agencies, it’s all the more important that we remember the destruction of civil liberties during World War II and its lessons for today,” said Kenji G. Taguma, executive producer of Films of Remembrance and president of its presenting organization, the Nichi Bei Foundation. “In the face of such sanitization, remembrance is resistance to erasure. We cannot let our history be marginalized again. There’s just too much at stake.”
“I feel that all of the films are important and relevant,” added UC San Diego Ethnic Studies Professor Christen Sasaki, Ph.D., a Films of Remembrance Committee member. “In the classroom I always tell my students that history is alive and occurring in the present. We can all learn so much about the present by learning about the past — from mass incarceration to community building and resistance.”
Films of Remembrance commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066 by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which put the wheels in motion to uproot a people.
According to California State University, Sacramento Ethnic Studies Professor Wendi Yamashita, Ph.D., such films are more important now than ever, as President Donald Trump is invoking the Enemy Aliens Act of 1798 to justify his plans for mass deportation — the very act that “was used to justify our incarceration.”
“These films are always relevant because they document an important moment in U.S. history that teaches us about the fragility of American democracy and civil rights,” explained Yamashita, a Nichi Bei Foundation board member. “Today, we are seeing the violent erasure of history by the federal government, and these films refuse that erasure. These films remember state violence and explore the lingering trauma of state violence in deeply personal and intimate ways.”
“I really loved Kioku: Remembrance because it provided me with so much hope,” reflected Yamashita, a member of the Films of Remembrance Committee. “It was so powerful to see students of all ethnic backgrounds who were so passionate about preservation and JA incarceration history in their hometown. I also appreciated Yonsei and Misadventures of a Nisei Week Queen for the way it explored Japanese American girl/womanhood in relationship to incarceration and identity. I could really connect with these films.”
“I appreciate the fact that many of the filmmakers are expanding how we think about incarceration to think about its enduring impact through generations — as generational trauma but also generational healing,” added Sasaki. “One of the films that I’m particularly looking forward to seeing is Tad Nakamura’s Third Act. Having gone through the UCLA Asian American Masters program and being a part of Asian American Studies, I’ve felt Bob (Nakamura’s) impact on the community.”
This year, thanks to Presenting Sponsorship from The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, Films of Remembrance is once expanding from a two-day event in Northern California to a four-day event including two days in Southern California — in partnership with the Japanese American National Museum and the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.
Proceeds benefit the Wayne Maeda Educational Fund. Partial proceeds from ticket sales at Films of Remembrance will be donated by the Nichi Bei Foundation to local nonprofits.
For tickets and more information on this year’s event, visit 2026.filmsofremembrance.org.
Venues:
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
AMC Kabuki 8, 1881 Post St., San Francisco Japantown
Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, 11:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.
San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin Annex, 640 N. Fifth St., San Jose’s Japantown
Saturday, March 28, 2026, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Tateuchi Democracy Forum (Japanese American National Museum), 100 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo (LA)
Sunday, March 29, 2026, 11:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.
Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute. 1964 W. 162nd St. (Main Hall), Gardena, Calif.
PROGRAMS:
Loyalty Questioned
The Most Loyal “Traitors” (10 min., 2025) by Kayla Jem Ling. A short historical documentary about how the Nisei soldiers of WWII’s 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team fought to protect America and to free their families at home.
Defiant to the Last: Resistance at the Tule Lake Jail (37 min., 2025) by Emiko Omori. For over 80 years, the jail at the World War II Tule Lake Segregation Center in Northern California has remained a mystery. Why was there a jail inside a jail?
Artistic Interpretations
DUST (13 min., 2025) by Glenn Mitsui. A visual poem film composed of eight poems written and narrated by poet and writer Brandon Shimoda, each visually interpreted through the artwork and motion design of Glenn Mitsui.
Procession (18 min., 2025) by Bruce Tetsuya. A woman embarks on a pilgrimage to one of the Japanese American incarceration camp sites on her 70th birthday.
Hello Maggie! (23 min., 2025) by Willie Ito. This animation is based on the real-life experiences of Shigeru Yabu and illustrated by the legendary Disney animator Willie Ito, recounting his story of being forcibly removed from his family’s home in San Francisco and sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, in 1942.
Assembly Centered
Misadventures of a Nisei Week Queen (17 min., 2025) by Sharon Yamato/Evan Kodani. A short documentary about spirited 92-year-old June Aochi Berk — from prewar Little Tokyo to living in a horse stall at Santa Anita Park, to the Rohwer concentration camp, and to being crowned Nisei Week Queen.
Kioku: Remembrance (33 min., 2025) by Koji Lau-Ozawa/Barre Fong. Kioku tells the story of a group of students striving to build a monument at the Tulare County Fairgrounds, commemorating the site’s use as a detention facility for Japanese Americans during WWII.
Identity Explored
Yonsei (37 min., 2025) by Rachel Michiko Whitney/Jeff Mizushima. Feeling stuck in her acting career, Rachel decides to write and star in a film about her mother, who was a struggling Japanese American actress in 1980s Hollywood, but she digs deeper into her grandmother’s story about falling in love in a Japanese American incarceration camp during WWII.
9066: Fear, Football & The Theft of Freedom (22 min., 2024) by Chris Jones. When former NFL linebacker and Super Bowl champion Scott Fujita traces his family history in the U.S. back to incarceration during WWII, he and his father find reconciliation in what happened and the unlikeliest of football stories.
Showcase Presentation
Third Act (90 min., 2025) by Tadashi Nakamura. As the filmmaking son of a filmmaking legend, Tad uses the lessons his dad taught him to decipher the legacy of an aging man who was a child survivor of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, a successful photographer who gave it up to tell his own story, an activist at the dawn of a social movement. As Parkinson’s Disease clouds his memory, Tad sets out to retrieve his story — and in the process discovers his own.
Tickets:
$15 each program / $25 for “Third Act” (includes reception) in San Francisco and Los Angeles / $20 Filmmaker Reception only
$75 All-Day Passes (limited) in SF, LA
$60 All-Day Passes (limited) in San Jose, Gardena
Nichi Bei members get discounts Students with ID: FREE (limited)
Tickets and more info: 2026.filmsofremembrance.org
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Presented by the Nichi Bei Foundation
Presenting Sponsor:
The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation
Media Sponsor: Nichi Bei News
In Partnership With: Japanese American National Museum and Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute
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FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT:
The 15th annual Films of Remembrance, the premier showcase of films on the forced removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 persons of Japanese descent in American concentration camps during World War II, will be held in four California cities, encompassing all three remaining Japantowns. Some 10 films will be presented throughout four venues, bringing in filmmakers from across the country, shedding light on a dark chapter of American history.
WHEN and WHERE:
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
AMC Kabuki 8, 1881 Post St., San Francisco Japantown
Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, 11:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.
San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin Annex, 640 N. Fifth St., San Jose’s Japantown
Saturday, March 28, 2026, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Tateuchi Democracy Forum (JANM), 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo
Sunday, March 29, 2026, 11:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.
Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute. 1964 W. 162nd St. (Main Hall), Gardena, Calif.