“Work as hard as you can for what you believe in
Marii Hasegawa

Why work for peace and justice? How does one take on this work and sustain oneself when it takes so long to see results, if any? What does it take: stubbornness, vision, a long life? Marii Hasegawa: Gentle Woman of a Dangerous Kind seeks to answer these questions in the story of this lifelong peace activist.

Born near Hiroshima, Japan, into a family of Buddhist priests, Marii Hasegawa moved to California in 1919 when she was barely a year old. It was not long after she was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, earning a degree in home economics, that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. About 110,000 people of Japanese birth and descent—including Marii and her family—were forcibly incarcerated in American concentration camps.

After the war, Hasegawa moved east, married a scientist, raised two daughters, ran the family farm, and quietly began working for peace and human rights. More than 60 years later, she was still at it.

Director and Producer: Janet Scagnelli/Co-producers: Lynda Fleet Perry, Pat Tashjian
Music: Jamie K. Sims
(c) Small Steps Films |
Running time: Approximately 30 minutes