A film about injustice, redemption, and a burning desire for all people to be treated equally.
A son of immigrants and forced into a U.S. World War II concentration camp as a child, Norman Mineta became the first Asian American mayor of a major city (San Jose, California); leading to a distinguished 20-year career in Congress; the first Asian American Cabinet member, serving two U.S. Presidents, a Democrat and Republican.
He never forgot his roots or the shame and humiliation he and his family felt during WWII and led the way for an apology from the U.S. government and redress for Japanese Americans. On September 11, 2001, his leadership as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, would ensure that what happened to Japanese Americans during WWII did not happen to any other group based on ethnicity or religion.
Directed by Dianne Fukami, who has produced, directed, and written more than a half-dozen documentaries on the Asian-American experience (mostly on Japanese-American history) which were broadcast on PBS stations throughout the U.S. Separate Lives, Broken Dreams, about the Chinese Exclusion Act, was nominated for a national Emmy Award; Starting Over: Japanese Americans After the War has received scholarly citations for its first-person anecdotes. Her most recent documentary, Stories From Tohoku, was showcased at CAAMFest in 2014 (formerly the San Francisco Asian International Film Festival) and screened at film festivals in New York and Los Angeles.