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Although his primary skill was in still photography, Tom Parker had a deep interest in the possibilities of documentary film. Here he is shown capturing footage of Nisei soldiers, in training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. In his official WRA employment records Parker claimed that the documentaries he had made were widely shown across the United States and helped to create a more favorable state of race relations between Japanese Americans and the larger Caucasian public.

Tom Parker, WRA Photographer, makes a close-up movie of Japanese-American soldiers at Camp Shelby running the obstacle course. The 442nd combat team at Camp Shelby is composed entirely of Americans of Japanese descent who volunteered for services in the armed forces. This unit of approximately 8000 men is undergoing intensive training in all branches of combat duty, and they are looking forward with eagerness to actual services at the front. -- Photographer: Mace, Charles E. -- Camp Shelby, Mississippi. 7/?/43

Courtesy of WRA no H-108, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, BANC PIC 1967.014--PIC, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

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