Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story

Alexis Cruz Chad Sakamoto Brittany Ishibashi

When 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly evacuated from the West Coast of the United States during World War II, Ralph Lazo, a 16yearold of Mexican American and Irish American descent from East L.A. followed his Japanese American friends, neighbors and classmates in to the Manzanar Japanese American internment camp. He remained in the U.S. internment camp until 1944, when he was drafted in to the army, and served in the Pacific theater. Not many beyond the Japanese American community knew of his story, inspiring Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress NCRR to partner with Visual Communications to create an educational film to teach his crosscultural story in the classroom. Funded by grants from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, the halfhour drama was shot at the Manzanar National Historic Site, and in Los Angeles, and completed in 2004.In 1941, Ralph Lazo is a 16yearold student at Belmont High School, an ethnically mixed school in downtown Los Angeles. When Pearl Harbor is bombed, Ralphs Japanese American friend, Jimmy Matsuoka, and his family, are forced to sell their belongings and evacuate to a remote concentration camp. Ralph surprises his friends at the train station as they are about to depart for Manzanar, a relocation center in central California. He joins them for the 5hour train ride, the threeyear stay, and a lifelong friendship. ........

Source: Wikipedia