WE SAID NO! NO!: A Story of Civil Disobedience

The film is directed by Brian Tadashi Maeda, J-Town Pictures, who was born in Manzanar. We Said No! No! is a story of civil disobedience set against the backdrop of World War II and the controversial internment of thousands of “disloyal” Japanese Americans in the most notorious of all Japanese concentration camps, Tule Lake. It was there that the Japanese Americans who refused to say “yes” to the infamous Loyalty Questionnaire were imprisoned and labeled the “No, No’s.”  We Said No! No! follows a group of dissidents deemed disloyal as they fight for their freedom, their dignity and their families in an America that had forsaken them.

The film combines interviews with Japanese Americans and their family members who were once derisively referred to as “No No Boys,” archival footages and photographs, and dramatic reenactments of incidents in the Tule Lake Segregation Center.