By Russell Contreras & Terry Tang
ALBUQUERQUE, NM (AP) --The second season of an AMC-TV drama series follows the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and a number of bizarre deaths haunting a community.
"The Terror: Infamy" is set to premiere Monday and stars Derek Mio and original "Star Trek" cast member George Takei as they navigate the forced internment and supernatural spirits that surround them.
It's the first television series depicting the internment of Japanese Americans on such a massive scale and camps were recreated with detail to illustrate the conditions and racism internees faced.
The show's new season is part of the Ridley Scott-produced anthology series.
Mio, who is fourth-generation Japanese American and plays Chester Nakayama, said he liked the idea of adding a supernatural element to a historical event such as Japanese American internment. He says he had relatives who lived on Terminal Island outside of Los Angeles and were taken to camps.
Residents there were some of the first forced into internment camps after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
"If you add the supernatural element, it's a little more accessible and now it's like a mainstream subject and it can open up more discussion about what really happened and what's going on right now," Mio said.
It was a role personal to him as well. "It's not just another kind of acting job for me," Mio said. "I really do feel a responsibility to tell this story that my ancestors actually went through."
From 1942 to 1945, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were ordered to camps in California, Colorado, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and other sites.
Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, forced Japanese Americans, regardless of loyalty or citizenship, to leave the West Coast and other areas for the camps surrounded by barbed wire and military police. Half of those detainees were children.
Takei, who was interned in a camp as a child, said he was impressed with the show's research into recreating the camp.
"The barracks reminded me again – mentally, I was able to go back to my childhood. That's exactly the way it was," Takei said. "So for me, it was both fulfilling to raise the awareness to this extent of the terror. But also to make the storytelling that much more compelling."
The series also involves others who are connected to historic World War II events. Josef Kubota Wladyka, one of the show's directors, had a grandfather who was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb dropped and managed to survive.
Max Borenstein, one of the show's executive producers who lost relatives at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, said the show's horror genre still doesn't compare to the horror of the internment camp.
"It was important to do the research, the lived reality that people faced," Borenstein said. "The fact of taking people who are citizens of the country and (putting them in camps) is a great stain of our country."
Co-creator Alexander Woo, who is Chinese American, said he believes the series is especially relevant now given the debate over immigration in the U.S. and Europe.
"The struggle that immigrants go through of embracing a country that doesn't embrace you back is a story, unfortunately, that keeps repeating," Woo said. "There's going to be some people who likely didn't know of the internment. There will be some people who had relatives in camps. We have a responsibility to be accurate."
Associated Press writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report from San Diego.
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More