National Award Given To Howard County Teen For Her Documentary About Anti-Asian Propaganda

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Dunloggin Middle School student Anushka Skariah recently was given the Award for Excellence in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Historical Research for her documentary, which details the role of popular media like Disney and Dr. Seuss in disseminating anti-Asian propaganda.

Skariah was recognized during Howard County Public Schools' History Day competition. Her documentary was one of more than 170 submissions from approximately 260 students. Her mom Karuna Skariah described it as "a real passion project."

"She spent six months researching, writing, recording and editing her film," Karuna Skariah told Patch.

Anushka Skariah shared with Patch that last year in 7th grade she created a documentary about Henrietta Lacks and the "unethical use of her immortal cells." The project won an award and introduced the videographer to the movie-making process.

"Even though it was a very fun experience making this project, I do not think I will pursue this career, but instead keep it as a hobby since I really like to create documentaries on important topics," Skariah shared with Patch.

She chose the topic she did after previously writing an essay on her views of the Japanese Internment.

"While I was writing my essay without much research, I thought the United States’ national agenda and the steps they took were justified. However, I talked with someone whose family members were born in the Japanese Internment Camp, which gave me a different perspective. After re-reading my response, I thought that it was a really interesting topic because of how much a person including myself can be influenced by propaganda during a war or huge event. Upon thoroughly researching, I came to know of the devastating repercussions of United States propaganda against Japanese Americans," she said.

"This documentary is my way of compiling all the aspects of the internment to inform people who may be interested in this topic. My research included watching documentaries, looking up presidential interviews, watching Disney movies with anti-Japanese sentiment, articles of authors with differing perspectives of the matter and many primary source photos like archived propaganda posters and Japanese Americans in internment camps," she added. "I conducted my research, which provided a deeper context to the process of the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans and the United States’ inaccurate portrayal of Japanese Americans."

Skariah deducted that the Japanese internment adversely affected diplomatic relations between the United States and Japan.

"The negative and politically incorrect propaganda toward the Japanese Americans and the racial resentment from the public led to a generational trauma for Japanese Americans. Recently, there have been similar events to the Japanese Internment that have occurred like the family separation policy involving undocumented immigrants at the Mexican-American border," she continued. "A documentary is a powerful way to convey pertinent information to the public quickly and efficiently because it addresses the auditory, visual, verbal, logical, social and/or solitary needs of an audience."