The Noble Witness is a 16-minute short biographical documentary that chronicles the life, philosophy, and creative resilience of Shoji Oda, a 98-year-old wood-carving artist and survivor of the Japanese American concentration camp. Rather than recounting history as distant face, the film captures memory as a living, breathing presence- something fragile, human, and urgently contemporary.



Approach
Most films addressing Japanese American incarceration approach the subject through archival reconstruction: photographs, documents, expert interviews, and historical narration. The Noble Witness deliberately rejects this framework. Instead of treating 1942–1945 as a closed chapter of history, the film positions Shoji Oda’s life as a continuum—one that extends into the present and implicates the viewer as someone standing on the same timeline.

Conversation Over Interview
To preserve this intimacy, the production adopted a radically minimal and human approach with director-operated camera, two-person crew (director and producer only), no formal interview setup, and no interrogation-style questioning. We sit at the same table, drinking tea, sharing time. What unfolds is not an interview, but a conversation.

In Memory of Shoji Oda (1923-2025)
Directed, Filmed, and Edited by Yuta Okamura
Produced by Apo W. Bazidi