Overview

A documentary film about Yoshi Kubo, a farmer and American citizen from the Merced County town of Ballico. Under the World War II Japanese exclusion order, he and his family were forcibly evicted from their farm and evacuated to an internment camp in Colorado with little notice. Only through collaboration with an unexpected ally from outside their community could they hold out any hope that their land and livelihood were not lost to them forever. Internees were required to accept conscription into military combat.

Yoshi, bitter about being stripped of his land, refused to submit, arguing that as a farmer, he could best serve the war effort farming under an agricultural deferment. This courageous stand resulted in his incarceration in federal prison for the duration of the war.

In his letters, Yoshi revealed he lived by the maxim “row, don’t drift,” choosing the path that he felt was right, even though it was a harder one, and even if he had to walk it alone.