just beyond Hope is a new experimental documentary work by Pia Massie about the experiences of Japanese-Canadians and Japanese-Americans during WW2. The story is from the past – a time that most have trouble speaking about, if they know it at all.  It is a story that no two people see the same way; a story that no one agrees upon.

Margaret is a young white Canadian social worker who wrote letters home from Tashme, the internment camp in British Columbia located 14 kilometers beyond Hope.  Trudy is a Japanese-Canadian who was interned at Tashme with her family.  Shyoko, a Japanese-American reads the texts of Mine Okubo‘s classic book, Citizen 13660. Shyoko’s father Shiro Toda published The Rocky Shimpo, one of the only Japanese language newspapers that was published outside camp. These are the three main voices we hear.

Using personal archival photos, letters and newspapers, Just Beyond Hope creates a dialogue between white and Japanese, Canadian and American, first, second and third generation women. Each person offers their unique perspective. As these women tell their stories from different points of view, a fractured jigsaw puzzle of the time period builds memory fragment by memory fragment.

The historical issues triggered by war – of racism, nationalism, incarceration, enforced servitude, repatriation, reparations and land claims/occupation – are brought forward through the details of the women’s daily lives.

In addition to Margaret’s letters, the Rocky Shimpo newspaper articles (published by Shyoko’s dad Shiro) and Trudy’s family photos, the visuals include original filmed footage and the extraordinary photos that Dorothea Lange took which were impounded by the US government at the time and have only recently come to light.