BASEBALL BEHIND BARBED WIRE - FREE 3 YEAR STREAMING OR DVD FOR CALIFORNIA MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - United Nations Association Film Festival | WORLD PREMIERE - Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival | Screened at National Baseball Hall of Fame

Japanese American Endurance & Perseverance • Baseball • Internment Camps • World War II • Animation •  Archival • Ethnic Studies 

Date of Completion: 2023 | Run Time: 34 minutes​​ | Language: English | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Writer/Director: Yuriko Gamo Romer | Producers: Yuriko Gamo Romer, Marc Smolowitz & Loi Ameera Almeron | Archival Producer: Loi Ameera Almeron | Editor & Co-Writer: Shirley Thompson | Director of Cinematography: Andrew Black | Consulting Producer: Abby Ginzberg 

BASEBALL BEHIND BARBED WIRE is an ethnic studies film that rhythmically paints the story of Japanese American incarceration during World War II through the lens of baseball, America's beloved pastime, with interviews and art by former incarcerees, animation, and archival film and photos. Despite being stripped of civil rights and confined from 1942-45, Japanese Americans embraced baseball to assert their citizenship and loyalty amid guard towers and barbed wire. BASEBALL BEHIND BARBED WIRE centers on Arizona's Gila River Camp, vividly portraying key players Howard Zenimura and Tets Furukawa. Coach Kenichi Zenimura, known for playing with Babe Ruth, collaborated with Howard to build a diamond from stolen materials. This national pastime flourished in all ten camps, spanning California to Arkansas. Some camps had multiple fields and even thirty teams. In 1945, though liberated, Japanese Americans faced an uncertain "home." They rebuilt lives, embodying the Japanese spirit of "gaman" (endurance) and "gambaru" (to persevere). Throughout this arduous history, baseball remained an unwavering thread of resilience.