Farewell to Manzanar recounts a dark chapter in American history from the point of view of those most closely affected by it. This made-for-TV movie concentrates on the Wakatsukis, a Japanese-American family living in Santa Monica, California in the early 1940s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the family's father (Yuki Shimoda) is accused of selling fuel to Japanese submarines and is thrown in jail. His wife and children are shipped off to the internment camp of Manzanar in California, along with thousands of other American citizens of Japanese descent. Based on the autobiographical book co-written by Jeanne Wakatusi (played in the film by Dori Takeshita as a child and Nobu McCarthy as an adult) and her husband James D. Houston, Farewell to Manzanar explores not only the humiliations suffered by the Wakatusis behind barbed wire, but also their fears as to how they'll be treated by the white populace upon their release. Understandably one-sided, the film works best when celebrating the indomitability of the human spirit. Farewell to Manzanar was originally telecast March 11, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi