[Home Movies of Heart Mountain / 1945]

Maker Hashizume, Naokichi

Date1945

Mediumacetate

DimensionsFilm Format: 8.00 mm, L: 250 ft, Diam: 7 in

ClassificationsMoving Images

Credit LineGift of the Hashizume, Uemura and Ouchi Families Atomettes film: Gift of Susan Uemura

Object number92.18.9

DescriptionBlack and white home movie footage documenting life in Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming by Naokichi Hashizume in February 1945. Composed of home movie clips of Japanese Americans engaged in a variety of activities, including people gathering at mess hall, laundry in industrial sinks, sewing and knitting, paper flower making for a wreath, mochitsuki from steaming rice to pounding into mochi to forming mochi, and a winter carnival. There is also footage of exterior and interior views of barracks, windstorms, basketball, girls dressed in kimono playing koto, children playing in snow, and people playing the board game Go. Some footage in reverse with children on slides, bike riding and a fire engine speeding by.

0:33 - "Heart Mountain Relocation Center Feb. 1945" written on black flag in both English and Japanese
0:42- Night time panning shots of barracks; many lights in the distance
1:09 - Daytime panning shots of barracks with Heart Mountain
2:06 - Barracks with icicles
2:17 - Three women walking away in the snow
2:31 - Barracks with snow outside
2:47 - Wide shot of barracks with Heart Mountain in the background
2:51 - US flag flying on pole
3:26 - People outside walking, bundled up
3:59 - People walking away from the camera on road in between barracks
4:18 - Girls running freely
4:29 - Men working to haul coal (?)
4:35 - Portrait shots of children
4:57 - A girl and a young boy (siblings?) playing with toy airplanes sitting down
5:09 - Men and women walking around barracks
6:05 - Many people walking/running hurriedly into mess hall
6:49 - Interior mess hall, people in line grabbing plates
7:09 - Mess hall workers serving food
7:22 - Family eating at a table
7:31 - Boy walking down an aisle
7:40 - Smiling shots of kids eating at the table
7:50 - Panning shots of mess hall, many people seated eating
8:06 - Woman walking around with water
8:11 - Family name written on a piece of wood
8:15 - Interior shots of a wall with frames
8:23 - Three girls knitting
8:29 - Two girls playing the koto in kimono
9:11 - Shots of the two kotos
9:54 - Group playing Chinese checkers
10:11 - A woman pouring tea with a man sitting next to her, both are laughing
10:44 - Shots of beds
10:57 - Girl combing hair at a desk, camera pans down from the ceiling
11:08 - Kitchen with a big pot
11:15 - Person walking with a pail full of clothes outside
11:29 - An older woman cleaning clothes
11:40 - Interior shots of the laundry room
12:07 - Two old women ironing and sewing clothes
12:29 - Woman sewing
12:39 - Large group of women making corsages around a table
13:44 - Close up shots of the paper flowers
14:22 - Women twirling around the flowers they made, working shots
14:50 - Man flower arranging
15:30 - Completed wreath
15:37 - Men playing Go inside a room
16:20 - Rice in a stacked wooden box cooking on top of a “stove” outside
16:37 - Rice being scooped out from the wooden container
16:50 - Men with motchitsuki
16:52 - Motchitsuki shots
17:29 - Group of women forming mochi with their hands
17:50 - Mochi being placed carefully on rack
17:52 - Shot of mochi’s perfectly lined up
18:10 - Woman walking out of building with a pail
18:19 - Ice skating
18:24 - “Winter Carnival” sign hanging over ice skaters
18:34 - Panning shot of ice skaters
18:50 - Boys running and sliding in the snow, some with a sled

1 film reel (250 ft.) : si., b&w ; 8 mm. original pos.;Home movie footage documenting life in Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming by Naokichi Hashizume in February 1945. Composed of home movie clips of Japanese Americans engaged in a variety of activities, including people gathering at mess hall, laundry in industrial sinks, sewing and knitting, paper flower making for a wreath, mochitsuki from steaming rice to pounding into mochi to forming mochi, and a winter carnival. There is also footage of exterior and interior views of barracks, windstorms, basketball, girls dressed in kimono playing koto, children playing in snow, and people playing the board game Go. Some footage in reverse with children on slides, bike riding and a fire engine speeding by.