Rabbit in the Moon (1999) User Reviews

Untold side of Japanese-Americans

[davinasantos · 7/10 · 22 January 2006]

This movie was a real eye-opener to the racism and hysteria caused by Pearl Harbor. I was unaware of Japanese internments detrimental effects on Japanese-American culture until this film. Forced into internment camps, some of which were on Native American "reserved" lands, they were striped of all of their livelihood. Japanese-Americans lives were utterly disrupted shredding the fibers of their economic, social, and family support structures and mind you without any credible evidence of Japanese-American espionage. Not until some 50 years later under the Regan administration were efforts taken by the U.S. government to right this wrong. This film is tactfully directed and portrays an untold story of diminished Japanese-American culture in the U.S.

Like attending a funeral

[edwartell · 6/10 · 21 July 2000]

Rabbit In The Moon, which I saw at the 1999 SXSW Film Festival but which also aired on PBS, is Emiko Omori's elegiac documentary/memory trip about Japanese "internment camps" during World War II in America. These were, of course, concentration camps, but the internees were ashamed at the time to use the words, because of the inevitable connotations they bring up. Simultaneously, Rabbit In The Moon examines both the general impact of these camps upon Japanese and Japanese-Americans (there really is a significant difference) and the specific impact upon Emiko Omori's family. Omori (who served as assistant cameraman on another elegiac film, Barbara Sonnebaum's Regret To Inform) interviews her family and other former internees. She's obviously making this movie for herself, rather than for her audience, which is the challenge for the audience. Compelling interviews and old propaganda footage will only get you so far, and after a while, attending somebody's self-exorcism gets a wee bit boring. Still, an important documentary, one of a very few on the subject.

Eye opening

[cassidycane · 9/10 · 11 February 2002]

Japanese Americans may have received reparations from damages incurred during WWII but the events of the camp are long lasting, as shown in this movie. What an eye opener this movie is. I had thought that the JACL (Japanese American Citizen's League) was an organization that stood for the rights for Japanese Americans but from the movie it seems the group was hardly representative of the people. The clips from old news reels produced by the government showed the incredible effort that was put into making the general public believe that the camps consisted of "model homes" and that the prisoners were "evacuees" and that the Japanese people believed Uncle Sam to be a kind "master." The movie should be watched by all who wish to understand the power the government and the media has over history. It teaches people that history is owned and what we believe is true is oftentimes what we are allowed to believe is true. The only criticism that I have is that I wish there was a chance for members of the JACL to justify or refute what was said about them in the movie.