California Story Fund
Leap of Faith
Many Threads
San Francisco
Project Director: Lina Hoshina
A short documentary film about how Sebastopol teens took action against a hate crime in the wake of World War II
The Enmanji temple in Sebastopol served as a center of activity for the local Japanese farm communities before World War II. When all the Japanese Americans in the community were forcibly sent to internment camps, the temple was boarded up.
At the conclusion of the war, when news spread that the Japanese families were returning, unidentified individuals vandalized the temple and tried to burn it down. When young people at the Community Church of Sebastopol heard about the incident, the teenagers, who had grown up alongside Japanese Americans, organized to guard the temple for three months.
This 20-minute documentary will explore the teens’ motivation and the nature of the legacy they left behind.
“This story is not only part of Sonoma County’s history. It also constitutes an important way in which this community shapes its collective memory of the events surrounding World War II,” said filmmaker Lina Hoshino, who is the project director and president of the project sponsor, Many Threads. “This story of young people taking a leap of faith to help members of their community does not erase the reality that civil and human rights were violated, families were torn apart, lives were destroyed property was stolen. Instead, it reminds us that it is possible to stand by those who are endangered and victimized by the prevailing political climate.”
The documentary will have its premiere at the Enmanji temple, where an ax scar serves as a reminder of the incident, which took place on Dec. 7, 2008, Pearl Harbor Day. An interfaith group of individuals will be invited to attend the screening and participate in a discussion following the film. They include representatives from Enmanji temple, the United Church of Christ, the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Muslim community as well as some of the people featured in the film.