Review of Come See the Paradise

This film, though not as historical and educational as it could have been on the topic of Japanese internment camps during World War II, was not meant to be a historical documentary. The film depicts the lives of Japanese American citizens as their lives undergo immense changes with the beginning of internment camps. The main focus of this movie is the love story between Jack and Lily, however there are some historically accurate parts of the film worth paying attention to. The depiction of life right before entering the camp and then later in the camp is worth noting. Leading up to the camp we are able to see the racism these Japanese Americans had to face, with vandalism and assault towards anyone resembling a Japanese person. The movie then spends a short amount of time depicting life inside the camp, however we get glimpses of the struggles facing those encamped. For example, there is the struggle each person faces of which country to pledge their allegiance to. First off, they don't know who is going to win the war and pledging either way could present dangers to them later. Second, pledging to America may be hard since Americans are the ones interning them, however, they are American citizens and so pledging to a country some of them have never even been to may seem weird and hard to do. In addition, the film does depict the struggle to maintain identity in the camp, demonstrated by Lily's father. Overall the camp experience is historically accurate even if it only takes up a small portion of the film. This movie could have been improved in many ways to make it more historical, however I completely understand why it was made this way. It is a hollywood film made for a large audience, and this audience doesn't want a documentary on Japanese internment camps. The love story between jack and Lily was 100% necessary to attract a large audience because that is the type of thing Americans look for in a film. For the average American not watching this movie through a historical lens, I would say it's a decent movie. It's better to have a movie with some historical facts and other faults that a large audience will watch than a completely historically accurate film which will only attract those already interested in history. At least a good portion of people are now gaining a broad knowledge on Japanese internment camps.