On Television: Internment and “The Terror: Infamy,” A Series on AMC

Katie Cooper in a Los Angeles Times podcast looks at Season 2 of “The Terror:  Infamy,” an American Movie Channel show that depicts life for Japanese Americans in internment during World War II. 

Set during World War II and the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans, “The Terror:  Infamy” weds a real-life horror story with a tale of the supernatural.  Showrunner Alex Woo says the second season of the anthology series “uses the horror genre to bring a story from the past into the present to represent the fear and terror of American citizens betrayed by their own government.”  The show is cast with actors of Japanese descent and is very personal for many of the people working on it, including star Derek Mio, who plays Chester Nakayama, a Nisei or American-born Japanese. Mio’s grandfather’s family lived in the same Japanese American community portrayed in the show, the one that once existed on Terminal Island in San Pedro. Its residents were forced into internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The show also features George Takei, who was interned along with his family when he was 5 years old. Writers, directors and crew members also bring their personal and family experiences with the incarceration.

KJ