The War Between Us (1995)

This movie is a few years old and was a straight to tv production as far as I can tell. And seeing as how I can't seem to find it anywhere else, I would assume it was only on for those couple of runs that I saw it... but it was one of the best films on how the Japanese were treated in Canada during world war 2.

The story features 2 families, the Kawashima family and the Parnham family. When world war 2 took place, the Kawashima family was uprooted from their lovely home and successful business in Vancouver, British Columbia, and forced to move to a low-income mining town. This came as something of a shock to the family because though Mr. and Mrs. Kawashima were not born in Canada, their children were and Mr. Kawashima served in the Canadian army during world war 1. One of the very vibrant images I have of this film is watching the Japanese family move into this little shack of a house from the perspective of their neighbours, the Parnhams. The family is obviously wealthy. The women wearing fur coats and have fashionable hair and make up, the men in suits, the ornate furniture and belongings they have brought with them to their new home, and how all of this so obviously clashed with the poverty-stricken area, the dirt roads and floors, and even the shabbiness of the cart carrying their things.

The eldest daughter of the Japanese couple, Aya, ends up becoming a housekeeper for the Parnhams. Ed, the husband, is open- minded about their new neighbours, but his wife Peg is more skeptical and treats Aya like a maid. By the end of the movie though, Peg has warmed to Aya and she becomes one of Peg's closest friends. The Parhnams have a young daughter, Marg , and she is very curious about the new neighbours. She starts hanging around their house and asks her already nervous mother questions about what she sees there. She completely immerses herself in the culture of the new family and the other Japanese people there. By the end of the film the family discovers that the government sold their house and business without their consent, and to add to the insult they are to be deported back to Japan, even though they are Canadian citizens and their children have never been to Japan. The final scene in the movie has the Kawashima family in the back of a truck, being driven away and Marg running after them in a little Kimono.

This movie is a really good film, both in terms of its historical content as well as in terms of it just being a good film. The acting was well done and I could relate to all of the characters. I was probably in elementary school when I saw it, but I really enjoyed it and I think that the movie's ability to hold my attention and imprint itself in my memory says something about the storytelling.

I cannot find a movie cover for this anywhere, it's not on amazon or any other site I can find, so here is the imdb page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114892/