PBS’ ‘We’ll Meet Again’ reunites the survivors of history
kinds of stories. This series does. That’s what we focus on.”
In Tuesday’s opener, we are introduced to Reiko, a Japanese-American woman who as a child in 1942 was sent to an internment camp, who hopes to find the classmate who stood by her in the face of anti-Japanese sentiment at the outset of World War II. More than 70 years later, she is brought together with her friend, Mary Peters, in a moving reunion that brought tears to all involved, including Curry and her production team.
“Everyone, we were just so moved by these moments,” Curry says. “And I think we’re moved because they speak to all of us as human beings. It is part of who we are, of how we connect.” History, it is said, is written by the winners and usually from the points of view of presidents, kings and historians. As for the ordinary people who experience landmark events, their stories largely go untold.
But in “We’ll Meet Again,” a six-episode documentary series airing Tuesdays beginning Jan. 23 on PBS (check local listings), their tales are front and center. Executive produced and reported by former NBC News anchor Ann Curry (“Today”), the hourlong series not only details the personal experiences of those who lived through historical events such as World War II, 9/11, the Vietnam War and the eruption of Mount St. Helens, but also reunites them years later with those with whom they went through these ordeals.
“We rarely really get to understand history from the point of view of people who are actually on the front lines,” Curry told a recent gathering of journalists in Beverly Hills, Calif., “with no power to change what’s happening to them, and who, because of these adversities, have to find a way to survive and to support each other and to get through it. I, you know, for years, have done stories about war and humanitarian disasters and about conflicts, social change, those