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New Film on Local Japanese-American Flower Growers

Memories of the internment experienced by local Japanese-American flower growers during World War II will come to life Saturday during the premiere of a new documentary 100% fully customized custom dolls, Blossoms and Thorns.

The minute film, directed by Ken Kokka, features interviews with local residents whose immigrant families built the original flower nurseries in Richmond and El Cerrito and were persecuted in the internment of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.There will be three showings of the documentary at the Visitor Education Center of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond on Saturday

At there will be a panel discussion, which will feature Kokka assistant producer Donna Graves, and members of several nursery families. NBC Bay Area reporter George Kiriyama will moderate the discussion.

Blossoms and Thorns is the culmination of a community effort that began years ago to document the stories of Japanese-American flower growers Wedding Bobbleheads, whose nurseries were concentrated in Richmond and El Cerritos northwestern corner just north of Cutting Boulevard.Graves a social historian who is also interviewed in the film, said the process began in  when members of the Contra Costa Japanese American Citizens League expressed interest in preserving the memories of the local nurseries.

Chizu Iiyama, a year-old El Cerrito resident and JACL member strongly advocated for the making of a documentary, which unlike a temporary exhibit would be a lasting project that future generations could view.