The closest that most of us will get to winning a coveted Academy Award is standing in front of the mirror and fantasizing about holding that gold statuette and making an emotional acceptance speech in front of millions.
But for Japanese American filmmaker and actor Chris Tashima, that fantasy became a reality in 1998 when he won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short for his film based on a play by Tim Toyama entitled Visas and Virtues, which told the story of Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who saved a number of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.
Five years later, Tashima is back with his next effort, Day of Independence, another short based on a play by Toyama, who also serves as the film’s executive producer. This time, Tashima tackles two more subjects close to him — baseball and the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
Day of Independence tells the story of Zip (Derek Mio), an interned Japanese American teenager whose main passion is baseball. When his sick father (Alan Muraoka) decides to return to Japan to die without his son, Zip must confront the upheaval this event causes in his life.
The idea for the film came from a feature-length screenplay that Tashima had been working on about the internment camps and Japanese American baseball players with Toyama and two other writers, Dan Kwong and Soji Kashiwagi.
“We had been meeting regularly for many months, discussing the topic, the time, the experience, the meaning, the goals,” says Tashima, who plays an umpire in the film. “Tim decided to write his own short play, Independence Day, based on his father’s experience, using some of this research and creative development, which was a natural fit since Tim’s father was a baseball player and was in camp.”
Because of the scope of this film, Tashima realized that this would be a much bigger challenge than Visas and Virtues had been.
“This film had a bigger cast, more extras, we needed to build a set [a big one, an internment camp and baseball field] and we were shooting out of town [in Stockton, Calif.],” Tashima says. “By our means, it was huge.”
But luckily, Tashima’s project was something the Asian Pacific American community, particularly Japanese Americans, rallied behind. Organizations such as the Stockton Buddhist Church and the local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League as well as many individuals gave of their time and resources to make sure the film became a reality.
Ultimately, what Tashima hopes audiences will take away from the film is more than just an entertaining history lesson.
“Tim wrote his play prior to 9-11-01, but it became timely because of this tragedy,” Tashima says. “I’m sure also that many of us made connections to past experiences, particularly what happened to JAs following Pearl Harbor.”