Origins Season 4: Our Thousand Days

TV Season Director | Producer | Writer

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals in the Pacific Northwest were forcibly removed and imprisoned in concentration camps without trial or due process. Five episodes look back at two women who were children at the time of their imprisonment, revealing a story of resilience against injustice that resonates today.

This series is scheduled to air on
Cascade PBS and stream on PBS.org in April of 2026.

Credits

Executive Producer
Sarah Menzies

Voice Talent
Cate Cameron
Shannon Dowdall
Harley Barra-Riviera

Interviewees
Lilly Kitamoto Kodama
Hanako Nishimura Konishi
Judy Kawaguchi Kusukabe
Ellen Sato Faust
Lorraine Bannai
Kri Yamamoto

Assistant Camera
Jonathan Pfundstein

Special Thanks
Beth Barrett
M. David Lee III
Zia Mohajerjasbi
Madeline Happold
Sophie Grossman
Sireen Abayazid
Nimra Ahmad

Bainbridge Island Exclusion Memorial

Washington State Fair Remembrance Memorial

Manzanar National Historic Site

Minidoka National Historic Site

Director
Andrew Inaba

Producers
Sarah Hoffman
Kendra Ann Sherrill
Andrew Inaba

Production Managers
Adam Spiro Brown
Shaina Scheifley

Editor
Yuji Kun

Cinematography
Andrew Inaba
Samuel Wolfe

Animation Lead
Wes Miles

Animation Support
Kira Westlund

Motion Design
Andrew Inaba

3D Animations
Nick Alexander

Sound
Dave Richards

Gaffer
Mike Astle

Studio Recordist
Erick Msumanje

Designers
Greg Cohen
Andrew Inaba
Wes Miles

Animation

Narrative animated sequences are a component in this series. I had noticed a cognitive dissonance in other documentaries on the subject: adult survivors recollecting childhood experiences created distance between the audience and the lived reality of those moments.

The animated sequences bridge that gap, allowing viewers to connect with our interviewees as they actually experienced removal from their homes—as young children whose parents struggled to shield them from the full weight of what was happening.

Cinematography

"Memory" serves as the visual and thematic foundation of this series. Just as our animations diffuse toward the edges, mimicking the way memories fade at their periphery, the interview cinematography employs vintage lenses with shallow depth of field to create a focused, dreamlike quality. This approach visually manifests the act of remembering itself, drawing audiences into an intimate space where past and present converge through the survivors' recollections.