The torso and boots are baked to keep the detail. The skirt is fabric. The eyes are also baked for all of my characters. The pupils are holes, so that I can take a needle and move the eye around for animation.

Her glasses were the hardest part. I needed anti-glare plastic and it took several tries to get that glasses shape. The fabric was moderately expensive, though I didn't need much. The shaw being silk. My Grandma's favorite color is purple, so I tried to design the characters to have a purple color scheme.

I don't believe this armature made it to the final output because I had to cut out a lot. Scotty was supposed to represent three things that my Grandma lost during the evacuation: her past, present, and future. Originally, my film was supposed to show my Grandma losing her photo album (past) and her dog Scotty (present). As for the future, my Grandma recieved an acceptance letter from a University she applied for, to study to become a nurse or doctor. Even though she was accepted, she couldn't go because of the Japanese Internment camps (her future).

Scotty was supposed to be in a scene where the father, tries to take Scotty away from Yuri, because pets are not allowed in the camps.

These characters were supposed to have a bigger role too, but trying to cut down this story into 3 minutes is a challenge.

Helen (Grandma's older sister), faced many challenges during this time. She had just gotten back home from a trip to Japan and two weeks later, Pearl Harbor was attacked. The FBI kept her in house arrest, in suspicion of being a Japanese spy. She was also caring for a baby, before entering the camps.

Rose (Grandma's younger sister) I believe was in middle school, when the evacuation occurred. There's not many children in my film. Rose was supposed to show a child's perspective of what was going on.

The father has the biggest role, next to Yuri. Though this is a story about my grandmother, it is her father that lost everything. The house, family market, the car. I also made the father one of the antagonists in my film. I wanted to show the irony that he was losing everything, but he was also responsible to telling the family that they can't bring certain things and take them away if needed. Being the head of the house hold, he was responsible for his family's evacuation and to follow all of the rules. If someone was stubborn in giving up an item, like my Grandma; then he had to put his foot down and say no and take the item away.

Her mother wasn't shown much, but I had scenes where people would take away her jewelry and fine china. I also didn't want her to react, which is what the viewer would expect. It's typical Japanese ideology to "endure". The mother would show no emotion and simply continue to pack her things, though she does acknowledge that there's someone at the other end of the room taking her fine china.

Out of all of the characters, I design him so that he would be the least colorful. I believe it made sense that he lost all of his colors first, before the rest of the famiily. On that note, I had a reoccurring theme, where the character's colors fade to show dispair and loss of spirit.

The "Stranger" isn't necessarily someone specific, but he represents those people who would take the Japanese and Japanese-Americans' belongings. During the evacuation, once the Japanese left, everything was up for grabs. That being said, people "knew" that everything would eventually be up for grabs and some went early, to claim their trinkets. 

My Grandma said, "Many of the neighbors would simply leave the key in the glove box. You couldn't sell the car. Why would someone buy your car, if it'll be abandoned when you left for the camps? They should've smashed their car with a baseball bat AND THEN left the keys in the glove box."

I portrayed my Grandma smashing up the family car in my film, right before the Stranger tries to take it.

This young man was a real person, but no one knows who he is.

In the real story, Yuri's boyfriend, George Hata (who would become my Grandfather), was a US soldier (and yes, he was of Japanese decent) and was able to take Yuri out of the camps for a very short time. I have no idea how he got that permission, but he took her to Chicago to get married. At the train station, there was a sheriff who yelled at my Grandma and Grandpa, saying, "What the Hell are you Japs doing here?". My grandfather then presented the permit papers, saying that Yuri was allowed to leave the camps. The sheriff didn't like it, but he conceded saying, "Well it's good you had, otherwise I would've thrown your asses in jail." My grandmother was so upset by not just this, but to the fact that she just had a beautiful wedding and even got to see green grass again; and now she was going back to the camps.

While on the train, US soldiers started to move through the train cars. There were way too many to count, but one of them noticed my Grandmother so upset. The soldier placed a cardboard box in the seat next to my Grandma and continued to march with everyone else. My Grandma looked in the box and it was all of his belongings. Rations, soda cans, bars of chocolate, magazines, blankets and some clothes. After seeing what was in the box and then she looked up to see who it was, he was gone. There were too many soldiers, to know who did it. She shouted, "THANK YOU!", hoping to let "him" know how grateful she was. She was so used to losing her belongings, that it was almost magical that someone would selflessly give up his belongings to her.

This was one year into the camps I believe. I my film, I adjusted the story, so that it was when her family was at the train station in California, not after the wedding in Chicago.