00:00:10.887 --> 00:00:15.887
(somber piano music)
(birds chirping)

00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:21.900
- [Diana] We had recently
moved from India to Japan

00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:23.491
when I was giving birth to our son.

00:00:23.491 --> 00:00:25.590
(knocking on door)

00:00:25.590 --> 00:00:28.263
My husband was nowhere to be found.

00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:30.990
Downstairs, creditors arrived

00:00:30.990 --> 00:00:33.183
to repossess nearly everything we owned.

00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:37.743
I had never felt so helpless,
so alone in the world,

00:00:38.910 --> 00:00:41.508
like a refugee in a foreign land.

00:00:41.508 --> 00:00:46.508
(somber piano music)
(furniture clattering)

00:00:47.190 --> 00:00:50.130
I had the thought of
hiding pieces of my jewelry

00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:52.245
and gave them to my neighbor.

00:00:52.245 --> 00:00:55.590
I felt shame and embarrassment,

00:00:55.590 --> 00:00:57.603
but I needed to protect my family.

00:00:58.770 --> 00:01:01.530
Only God would know how
these small trinkets

00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:03.609
would aid us in the future.

00:01:03.609 --> 00:01:06.692
(somber piano music)

00:01:09.596 --> 00:01:10.770
(baby crying)

00:01:10.770 --> 00:01:15.480
And then Michael was born and
the pain and shame evaporated.

00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:19.233
I felt the joy of holding
my first son in my arms.

00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:23.130
- [Narrator] Little did Diana know that,

00:01:23.130 --> 00:01:25.200
25 years into the future,

00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.540
she would help hundreds of refugees

00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:30.243
and be known as the
Little Mother of a Nation.

00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:33.990
An Armenian woman living in Japan,

00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:38.405
Diana Agabeg Apcar had never
laid eyes on her homeland,

00:01:38.405 --> 00:01:42.750
but events taking place there,
halfway around the world,

00:01:42.750 --> 00:01:45.423
would transform her life and purpose.

00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.322
Under the cover of World
War I, the Ottoman Turks

00:01:50.322 --> 00:01:53.463
launched a genocide against
the Armenian people.

00:01:54.316 --> 00:01:56.490
Their homeland stolen,

00:01:56.490 --> 00:01:58.833
one and a half million Armenians died.

00:02:00.330 --> 00:02:05.146
Very few escaped, and those who
did were desperate for help.

00:02:05.146 --> 00:02:07.729
(solemn music)

00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:21.180
The writings of a modest widow

00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:24.300
were inspiration to millions of Armenians,

00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:27.633
pawns in the game of
empires vying for power.

00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:32.220
Championing the cause of her countrymen,

00:02:32.220 --> 00:02:35.040
Diana Apcar was among the first women

00:02:35.040 --> 00:02:37.533
to take on a modern diplomatic role.

00:02:38.790 --> 00:02:40.950
- [Ara] Diana was ahead of her time.

00:02:40.950 --> 00:02:44.967
Her main concern was to find
some refuge for these people,

00:02:44.967 --> 00:02:46.980
and she did this single-handedly.

00:02:46.980 --> 00:02:49.110
- [Stephan] She tried to do her utmost

00:02:49.110 --> 00:02:50.970
for a cause in which she believed.

00:02:50.970 --> 00:02:54.240
That is, the survival of the Armenians,

00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:56.850
the survival of the Armenian state.

00:02:56.850 --> 00:02:59.010
- [Grant] She was a great humanitarian.

00:02:59.010 --> 00:03:00.780
- [Bryan] She was a
woman in a man's world,

00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:03.090
and she was making things happen.

00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:06.120
- [Stephan] We tend to forget
the power of the individual.

00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:10.350
The power of the individual
is a remarkable phenomenon.

00:03:10.350 --> 00:03:12.360
- [Peter] She was a radical.

00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.834
She was very critical of the world powers.

00:03:15.834 --> 00:03:18.417
(gentle music)

00:03:26.522 --> 00:03:29.272
(peaceful music)

00:03:32.670 --> 00:03:34.050
- [Narrator] Diana Agabeg

00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:36.570
was the youngest of seven children.

00:03:36.570 --> 00:03:39.240
Her parents were Armenian
immigrants from Iran

00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.523
who ran a large dairy farm in Rangoon.

00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:46.410
- In modern times, of course,
India has had a special place

00:03:46.410 --> 00:03:49.300
in the history of Armenian diaspora.

00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:53.190
It has been a major center
for Armenian intellectuals,

00:03:53.190 --> 00:03:55.770
and, of course, very well-known people

00:03:55.770 --> 00:03:59.460
who were major entrepreneurs
and businessmen in India.

00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:01.950
- It was crucial to
Armenians in the diaspora,

00:04:01.950 --> 00:04:04.680
especially in very foreign environments,

00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.268
to create tight-knit communities,

00:04:07.268 --> 00:04:11.173
wherein they would keep
all of their traditions

00:04:11.173 --> 00:04:14.160
and maintain all of the societal norms

00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:18.450
that would have been in
place in their homeland.

00:04:18.450 --> 00:04:21.420
The grounding factor in a person's life

00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:24.930
was their ability to
stay true to their roots.

00:04:24.930 --> 00:04:27.900
Being a member of the Armenian
Apostolic Church at that time

00:04:27.900 --> 00:04:30.090
meant, especially in the diaspora,

00:04:30.090 --> 00:04:33.090
that the church was the
center of your life.

00:04:33.090 --> 00:04:35.700
This would have certainly meant that

00:04:35.700 --> 00:04:39.813
she was a devout Armenian
Apostolic Christian.

00:04:40.928 --> 00:04:42.630
- [Diana] My mother always said that

00:04:42.630 --> 00:04:46.740
I was a queer child, that I
was precociously thoughtful

00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:48.633
and exquisitely sensitive.

00:04:51.703 --> 00:04:55.890
She thought of me as a
different kind of Christian too,

00:04:55.890 --> 00:04:58.503
rejecting certain church dogmas,

00:04:58.503 --> 00:05:02.160
but she knew I had
clearly defined principles

00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.563
that were impossible to circumvent.

00:05:06.441 --> 00:05:10.170
- [Narrator] Diana attended
convent school in Calcutta.

00:05:10.170 --> 00:05:11.970
Growing up speaking English,

00:05:11.970 --> 00:05:14.880
she sought out Armenian lessons as a teen.

00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:17.040
She loved reading and writing,

00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:20.250
and wrote her first
novel as a young woman.

00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:23.610
When Diana met Armenian
businessman Michael Apcar,

00:05:23.610 --> 00:05:26.730
she was more interested in
writing than his courtship.

00:05:26.730 --> 00:05:29.520
She was almost 30 when
they finally married.

00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:31.173
They honeymooned in Japan.

00:05:32.640 --> 00:05:36.240
A year later, Diana, Michael,
and their daughter Rose

00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:38.430
moved from India to Japan,

00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:41.733
where Michael established
his import-export business.

00:05:42.612 --> 00:05:45.695
(singers vocalizing)

00:05:48.918 --> 00:05:50.580
- Before the Meiji era,

00:05:50.580 --> 00:05:54.805
Japan had been closed to
foreigners for more than 200 years.

00:05:54.805 --> 00:05:58.860
For modernizing Japan,
they had this policy,

00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:02.040
which was called "Oyatoi Gaikokujin."

00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:07.040
It's in Japanese, which means
"honorary hiring foreigners."

00:06:07.328 --> 00:06:10.560
Foreigners were treated
with great respect,

00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:14.910
because most of the foreigners
in Japan, both men and women,

00:06:14.910 --> 00:06:19.650
were there to educate Japanese
about modern Western life.

00:06:19.650 --> 00:06:22.500
- Foreign trade was just
starting up, you know,

00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:26.262
in the 1880s, and there
was a lot of demand.

00:06:26.262 --> 00:06:30.903
I will say the business was
very profitable and prosperous.

00:06:31.890 --> 00:06:34.068
He was a very hot-tempered man.

00:06:34.068 --> 00:06:36.812
He lost his temper very frequently,

00:06:36.812 --> 00:06:39.720
and he was a terrible spendthrift.

00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:43.530
He would spend on anything
that suited his fancy,

00:06:43.530 --> 00:06:46.853
and I think that it
was very hard on Diana.

00:06:46.853 --> 00:06:50.313
I think the whole thing
was very difficult for her,

00:06:51.378 --> 00:06:56.378
especially as she had lost two
children, both of meningitis.

00:06:56.400 --> 00:06:58.380
(gentle music)

00:06:58.380 --> 00:07:00.390
Yes, that's a difficult life.

00:07:00.390 --> 00:07:04.716
I don't think it was a happy
marriage. I really don't.

00:07:04.716 --> 00:07:06.960
(gentle music)

00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:09.390
- [Narrator] Diana and
Michael had five children.

00:07:09.390 --> 00:07:11.609
Two of their three sons died.

00:07:11.609 --> 00:07:16.170
(gentle music)
(wind howls)

00:07:16.170 --> 00:07:19.443
In 1904, Japan went to war with Russia.

00:07:21.330 --> 00:07:24.810
As the wounded and dead
began to return to Japan,

00:07:24.810 --> 00:07:28.560
Diana published her book,
"Home Stories of the War,"

00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.770
eight short stories about
common Japanese people

00:07:31.770 --> 00:07:35.760
whose loved ones fought
in the Russo-Japanese War.

00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:38.343
She dedicated the book
to the Japanese people.

00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:42.090
- In that book, there are many stories,

00:07:42.090 --> 00:07:46.470
like when the Japanese mother or father,

00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:49.080
when they lose their son,

00:07:49.080 --> 00:07:52.380
they are saying that
it's the highest honor

00:07:52.380 --> 00:07:55.369
for a man to die for his country.

00:07:55.369 --> 00:07:58.170
- [Meline] These fictional
stories are based on

00:07:58.170 --> 00:08:00.519
what Diana could see around her.

00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:04.350
(somber piano music)

00:08:04.350 --> 00:08:05.370
- [Diana] The little boy heard

00:08:05.370 --> 00:08:07.773
his grandfather and other people talking.

00:08:09.191 --> 00:08:11.524
They said curious things

00:08:11.524 --> 00:08:13.740
of how those who had gone to the war

00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:17.073
were now put in the big
shrine to be honored forever.

00:08:17.983 --> 00:08:21.066
(somber piano music)

00:08:22.890 --> 00:08:24.780
He knew his father had gone to the war,

00:08:24.780 --> 00:08:28.053
and he was always waiting
for his father to come back.

00:08:29.884 --> 00:08:32.220
He is now in such a big house

00:08:32.220 --> 00:08:34.293
that we cannot find him anymore.

00:08:36.390 --> 00:08:39.930
- I can share Diana's
impressions at that time

00:08:39.930 --> 00:08:43.170
about Japanese, about
patriotism, first of all,

00:08:43.170 --> 00:08:46.302
devotion to communities,
devotion to homeland,

00:08:46.302 --> 00:08:49.987
and about the readiness to sacrifice.

00:08:49.987 --> 00:08:54.660
- The main message of "Home
Stories of the War" is

00:08:54.660 --> 00:08:58.350
the ability of Japanese people

00:08:58.350 --> 00:09:02.827
to accept the pain and the
loss without complaining.

00:09:02.827 --> 00:09:05.410
(somber music)

00:09:07.050 --> 00:09:09.270
- [Narrator] Diana's stoicism intensified

00:09:09.270 --> 00:09:11.550
when her husband Michael died suddenly

00:09:11.550 --> 00:09:13.320
while on a business trip.

00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.420
A frightened horse kicked him in the head

00:09:15.420 --> 00:09:17.130
in a freak accident.

00:09:17.130 --> 00:09:18.843
He died two days later.

00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:24.030
- When Diana's husband died,
Diana was fairly young,

00:09:24.030 --> 00:09:28.866
so Diana suddenly had this responsibility

00:09:28.866 --> 00:09:33.866
of taking care of three children
and to support the family.

00:09:34.410 --> 00:09:38.130
She didn't give up. She just
learned about the business.

00:09:38.130 --> 00:09:42.660
She did her best to make it successful

00:09:42.660 --> 00:09:43.960
for supporting the family.

00:09:46.359 --> 00:09:48.942
(solemn music)

00:09:52.890 --> 00:09:55.770
- [Narrator] In April
1909, Armenian Christians

00:09:55.770 --> 00:10:00.030
were massacred by Ottoman
Muslims in the city of Adana.

00:10:00.030 --> 00:10:01.080
This expanded into

00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:05.130
a series of anti-Armenian
pogroms throughout the province.

00:10:05.130 --> 00:10:07.759
- The Adana Massacres were
really a terrible moment.

00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:10.498
In 1908, the revolution in which

00:10:10.498 --> 00:10:13.121
Armenians and Jews and Muslims and Arabs

00:10:13.121 --> 00:10:16.530
had all participated, and really felt like

00:10:16.530 --> 00:10:20.130
it was a moment of constitutionalism

00:10:20.130 --> 00:10:22.650
and renewed brotherhood and so on,

00:10:22.650 --> 00:10:25.629
was met with a counter-revolution of

00:10:25.629 --> 00:10:29.070
religious conservatives
and Turkic nationalists,

00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:32.040
and one of the focal
points for that was Adana,

00:10:32.040 --> 00:10:33.960
a town in south-central Anatolia,

00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:38.425
where local religious extremists
and religious students

00:10:38.425 --> 00:10:41.070
attacked the local Armenian community,

00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:44.761
burning and destroying
entire towns and villages.

00:10:44.761 --> 00:10:47.040
(solemn music)

00:10:47.040 --> 00:10:49.560
- [Narrator] Diana held
regular gatherings in her home

00:10:49.560 --> 00:10:52.440
with religious, university,
and diplomatic leaders

00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:55.290
to discuss the world's current events.

00:10:55.290 --> 00:10:56.970
- [Diana] Are you feeling well, Reverend?

00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:59.010
- [Minister] I have some bad news.

00:10:59.010 --> 00:11:00.810
A party of Armenian pastors,

00:11:00.810 --> 00:11:04.140
on their way to the American
missionary conference in Adana,

00:11:04.140 --> 00:11:06.717
were stopped on the road and butchered.

00:11:06.717 --> 00:11:10.650
- [Diana] Oh no. Are the
killings starting again?

00:11:10.650 --> 00:11:11.853
God help us.

00:11:13.351 --> 00:11:15.060
Why aren't the newspapers

00:11:15.060 --> 00:11:17.523
recounting the story
of the slain ministers?

00:11:18.449 --> 00:11:20.610
Michael, go get the evening edition!

00:11:20.610 --> 00:11:22.210
We need to know what's going on!

00:11:27.420 --> 00:11:29.760
How can this be happening?

00:11:29.760 --> 00:11:32.942
What can be done to stop this violence?

00:11:32.942 --> 00:11:35.525
(solemn music)

00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:43.890
- [Michael] I just got these.

00:11:43.890 --> 00:11:45.783
The American papers have the story.

00:11:46.837 --> 00:11:49.420
(solemn music)

00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:09.660
- [Khatchig] In the immediate aftermath of

00:12:09.660 --> 00:12:11.636
the Adana massacres in 1909,

00:12:11.636 --> 00:12:13.920
Diana Apcar prepared pamphlets

00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:15.823
to be distributed in the United States

00:12:15.823 --> 00:12:19.530
that told the story of the
horrors of the massacres

00:12:19.530 --> 00:12:21.750
in Adana and the nearby provinces.

00:12:21.750 --> 00:12:24.570
Eventually, these pamphlets were expanded,

00:12:24.570 --> 00:12:27.984
and they were published in Japan in 1910.

00:12:27.984 --> 00:12:28.890
- [Diana] I have met

00:12:28.890 --> 00:12:31.650
an American missionary
passing through Japan.

00:12:31.650 --> 00:12:35.730
He had been in Cilicia
during the Adana Massacres,

00:12:35.730 --> 00:12:40.230
and I have been struck with
horror at what he had related,

00:12:40.230 --> 00:12:41.280
and as for the number

00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:44.190
precipitated into
homelessness and destitution,

00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:46.410
he said, "Who can tell?"

00:12:46.410 --> 00:12:49.020
They plundered and plundered and plundered

00:12:49.020 --> 00:12:52.114
and burned what they could not plunder.

00:12:52.114 --> 00:12:55.953
In Kessab, there was not
even a water jug left.

00:12:56.970 --> 00:12:59.067
- At least 30,000 were killed
in the Adana Massacres,

00:12:59.067 --> 00:13:02.040
but there was also a great
deal of displacement,

00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:04.470
and the displacement was
really the important issue.

00:13:04.470 --> 00:13:05.760
You had large numbers of refugees

00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:08.280
flooding into the city
from the countryside,

00:13:08.280 --> 00:13:10.290
but you had the destruction of

00:13:10.290 --> 00:13:13.121
the entire Armenian
agricultural infrastructure,

00:13:13.121 --> 00:13:16.216
which created starvation and disease

00:13:16.216 --> 00:13:18.663
for the next several years.

00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:22.230
- [Narrator] Diana had
always followed world events,

00:13:22.230 --> 00:13:25.294
but Adana was a turning point for her.

00:13:25.294 --> 00:13:27.630
- [Diana] The Armenians may be led again

00:13:27.630 --> 00:13:29.474
as sheep to the slaughter,

00:13:29.474 --> 00:13:32.943
and the work of extermination
may be completed.

00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:36.180
- [Narrator] Europeans had long debated

00:13:36.180 --> 00:13:37.933
the Armenian question,

00:13:37.933 --> 00:13:40.890
how to protect a group
of fellow Christians

00:13:40.890 --> 00:13:43.620
who were surrounded by Muslim neighbors,

00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:47.130
but debates did not prevent the massacres.

00:13:47.130 --> 00:13:49.320
- There was a consciousness

00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:53.933
among educated or relatively
educated people at that time,

00:13:53.933 --> 00:13:58.350
you know, of the existence
of the Armenian question,

00:13:58.350 --> 00:14:01.470
of the plight of the Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire

00:14:01.470 --> 00:14:02.303
and so on.

00:14:02.303 --> 00:14:03.600
I would tend to think that

00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:07.087
she was part of that broader mood,

00:14:07.087 --> 00:14:09.810
you know, among Armenians,

00:14:09.810 --> 00:14:12.960
the realization that the
bulk of the Armenian nation

00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:15.279
is in danger, is being massacred,

00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:18.003
that essentially nobody cares.

00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:23.130
The great powers are playing
games among themselves.

00:14:23.130 --> 00:14:25.500
- [Narrator] Diana wrote
feverishly that year,

00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:27.761
publishing two books in 1910,

00:14:27.761 --> 00:14:30.840
"The Truth About The Armenian Massacres"

00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:33.420
and "Betrayed Armenia."

00:14:33.420 --> 00:14:35.460
- [Diana] Other Christian
nations under Turkish rule

00:14:35.460 --> 00:14:36.630
have been emancipated,

00:14:36.630 --> 00:14:39.040
and their martyrdoms have come to an end,

00:14:39.040 --> 00:14:40.890
but the Armenians have been left to

00:14:40.890 --> 00:14:44.860
murder, woe, and desolation to this day.

00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:48.150
The powers of Europe have
placed a far greater value upon

00:14:48.150 --> 00:14:50.070
the Turkish railroad concessions

00:14:50.070 --> 00:14:52.890
and spheres of influence
in the Turkish Empire

00:14:52.890 --> 00:14:56.684
than upon the blood of a
helpless Christian race.

00:14:56.684 --> 00:14:59.684
(singer vocalizing)

00:15:01.714 --> 00:15:04.620
- [Narrator] Diana's
books were well-received,

00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:06.120
but to no avail.

00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:09.300
She felt disappointed and ineffectual.

00:15:09.300 --> 00:15:12.720
How could she influence world
attention toward Armenia?

00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:15.614
Was this expectation even realistic?

00:15:15.614 --> 00:15:18.780
When the ways of men proved difficult,

00:15:18.780 --> 00:15:22.710
Diana increasingly turned
to God for guidance.

00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:24.480
- She would go in that tower room

00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:27.060
every morning at about 10 o'clock,

00:15:27.060 --> 00:15:29.340
and that was her time of day

00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:31.560
that you just didn't disturb her.

00:15:31.560 --> 00:15:32.393
- Closed the door.
- And that's when

00:15:32.393 --> 00:15:34.830
she would sing her hymns and-

00:15:34.830 --> 00:15:39.758
- Say her prayers, and
nobody should open that door.

00:15:39.758 --> 00:15:41.216
- [Daniel] Nobody.

00:15:41.216 --> 00:15:44.216
(singer vocalizing)

00:15:48.950 --> 00:15:49.860
- [Diana] As I considered

00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:53.100
the exceeding great
affliction of my people,

00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:56.957
in the travail of my soul,
I cried unto the Lord.

00:15:56.957 --> 00:15:59.707
(dramatic music)

00:16:01.477 --> 00:16:05.460
"My people have been
consumed with fire and sword,

00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:08.253
and their blood did run
down as many rivers.

00:16:09.339 --> 00:16:12.380
My people have eaten ashes as bread,

00:16:12.380 --> 00:16:15.507
and quenched their thirst with tears."

00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:22.715
And as I prayed, there stood
beside me, as in a vision,

00:16:22.715 --> 00:16:26.070
He, the strength of whose presence

00:16:26.070 --> 00:16:29.374
penetrated into the marrow of my bones.

00:16:29.374 --> 00:16:32.124
(dramatic music)

00:16:37.350 --> 00:16:39.453
He led me by the hand into a valley,

00:16:40.525 --> 00:16:43.995
and there laid ashes of human flesh

00:16:43.995 --> 00:16:46.503
and charred bones of the dead.

00:16:48.540 --> 00:16:52.950
I fell on my face with fear and trembling,

00:16:52.950 --> 00:16:54.997
but He lifted me and said,

00:16:54.997 --> 00:16:59.997
"Write what these people
shall speak unto thee."

00:17:00.300 --> 00:17:04.200
And I said, "Sir, what shall I write?

00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:06.147
The dead speak not."

00:17:07.830 --> 00:17:10.710
And He said, "Nay, I shall make them

00:17:10.710 --> 00:17:13.110
stand up in the living flesh,

00:17:13.110 --> 00:17:15.603
and I shall give them a tongue."

00:17:15.603 --> 00:17:18.353
(dramatic music)

00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:34.897
Once more, He spake.

00:17:34.897 --> 00:17:38.989
"Write what the slain of
thy people shall speak.

00:17:38.989 --> 00:17:41.930
My strength is sufficient for thee."

00:17:41.930 --> 00:17:44.680
(dramatic music)

00:17:53.748 --> 00:17:58.331
(vocalist singing in foreign language)

00:18:13.260 --> 00:18:16.020
- Every human has been
created with a purpose.

00:18:16.020 --> 00:18:17.340
One of the struggles

00:18:17.340 --> 00:18:19.980
that Christians face
throughout their lives

00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.350
and in their relationship with God is

00:18:22.350 --> 00:18:27.350
determining exactly what that
purpose or those purposes are.

00:18:29.489 --> 00:18:33.182
Throughout the annals
of Christian history,

00:18:33.182 --> 00:18:35.670
we meet many remarkable people

00:18:35.670 --> 00:18:39.300
who have had and been guided by visions.

00:18:39.300 --> 00:18:41.190
- The sense of calling,

00:18:41.190 --> 00:18:45.660
that what she's doing has to do with God,

00:18:45.660 --> 00:18:47.700
what God wants her to do,

00:18:47.700 --> 00:18:49.080
but it's a little more than that,

00:18:49.080 --> 00:18:50.430
because it's also like

00:18:50.430 --> 00:18:53.531
you're the one that God wants to do this.

00:18:53.531 --> 00:18:58.114
(vocalist singing in foreign language)

00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:07.260
- [Narrator] Armenians
are an ancient people.

00:19:07.260 --> 00:19:10.500
Theirs is one of the
world's oldest cultures.

00:19:10.500 --> 00:19:11.760
Throughout history,

00:19:11.760 --> 00:19:14.430
the Armenian homeland
had been free at times,

00:19:14.430 --> 00:19:16.743
and absorbed by neighboring
powers at others.

00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:21.780
The Armenians were the first
nation to adopt Christianity,

00:19:21.780 --> 00:19:23.730
but since the rise of Islam,

00:19:23.730 --> 00:19:26.133
they have been surrounded
by Muslim peoples.

00:19:27.060 --> 00:19:30.467
- Diana's interest in politics

00:19:30.467 --> 00:19:35.467
had sprung from the
intolerance of injustice.

00:19:35.790 --> 00:19:38.620
She couldn't tolerate the injustice

00:19:39.810 --> 00:19:44.163
of bigger countries
towards smaller countries.

00:19:45.060 --> 00:19:46.680
- [Narrator] In 1300,

00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:49.920
the Ottoman Empire began an
expansive conquest across

00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:53.850
the Middle East, Northern
Africa, and Southern Europe.

00:19:53.850 --> 00:19:55.080
The Armenian homeland

00:19:55.080 --> 00:19:58.170
was among the first
nations to be absorbed.

00:19:58.170 --> 00:20:01.530
- [Meline] She could read
the political landscape well,

00:20:01.530 --> 00:20:04.651
and foresee the danger of her nation.

00:20:04.651 --> 00:20:07.440
It was this understanding of the situation

00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:11.944
that motivated her to try to
protect Armenia with her pen

00:20:11.944 --> 00:20:16.251
by convincing the world of
her country's situation.

00:20:16.251 --> 00:20:19.456
- [Diana] The great powers of
Europe treat the small nations

00:20:19.456 --> 00:20:23.730
as billiard players treat the
balls on a billiard table.

00:20:23.730 --> 00:20:26.340
They strike the helpless
balls of the small nations

00:20:26.340 --> 00:20:28.440
with their political cues,

00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:31.050
and the balls have to go
rolling here and there

00:20:31.050 --> 00:20:32.523
at the stroke of the players.

00:20:34.230 --> 00:20:36.030
I am a peace worker

00:20:36.030 --> 00:20:39.330
because there has been war
in my country for centuries,

00:20:39.330 --> 00:20:41.190
because I belong to a nation

00:20:41.190 --> 00:20:44.283
martyred by the imperialism
of other nations.

00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:50.850
Every nation has a right to
its own separate existence.

00:20:50.850 --> 00:20:54.480
Every nation has an inalienable
right to that country

00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:56.733
which is its own inheritance.

00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:00.330
- [Narrator] In the late 19th century,

00:21:00.330 --> 00:21:03.240
the Ottoman Empire was losing its power.

00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:04.920
Greece and the Balkan countries

00:21:04.920 --> 00:21:07.503
fought and won back their independence.

00:21:08.790 --> 00:21:12.990
Armenia as a country had not
existed for hundreds of years,

00:21:12.990 --> 00:21:14.490
and the Armenian people,

00:21:14.490 --> 00:21:16.940
bound by a language, church, and culture,

00:21:16.940 --> 00:21:20.220
were spread across hundreds of miles.

00:21:20.220 --> 00:21:23.610
The lands they inhabited had
long before been swallowed up

00:21:23.610 --> 00:21:25.443
by the empires that surrounded them.

00:21:26.790 --> 00:21:29.519
Six Armenian vilayets or provinces

00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:32.010
were part of the Ottoman Empire,

00:21:32.010 --> 00:21:34.560
two others part of the Russian Empire,

00:21:34.560 --> 00:21:36.300
and thousands of other Armenians

00:21:36.300 --> 00:21:38.613
were scattered throughout
neighboring areas.

00:21:39.630 --> 00:21:42.090
- The Armenians, they were stateless.

00:21:42.090 --> 00:21:45.270
They had no one, really,
to protect their interests.

00:21:45.270 --> 00:21:48.146
- [Diana] Hemmed round
by three great empires,

00:21:48.146 --> 00:21:50.652
Russian, Turkish and Persian,

00:21:50.652 --> 00:21:54.030
the unfortunate geographical
position of our country

00:21:54.030 --> 00:21:56.223
became the cause of its people's ruin.

00:21:58.170 --> 00:22:01.410
We were told in the polite
language of diplomacy

00:22:01.410 --> 00:22:04.380
that the equilibrium of
Europe and the peace of Europe

00:22:04.380 --> 00:22:05.910
required that Armenia

00:22:05.910 --> 00:22:08.850
should remain under Turkish domination.

00:22:08.850 --> 00:22:10.950
The power and sovereignty of the Turk

00:22:10.950 --> 00:22:13.950
are kept up by the powers of Europe.

00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:15.930
- So the Ottoman Empire
went from a place where

00:22:15.930 --> 00:22:19.320
the Armenians were part
of the warp and weft

00:22:19.320 --> 00:22:21.990
of culture and society and economics

00:22:21.990 --> 00:22:24.600
to a place where they became
a feared and hated minority

00:22:24.600 --> 00:22:26.700
over the course of about a century.

00:22:26.700 --> 00:22:30.540
- The assumption of many
Armenians is that somehow

00:22:30.540 --> 00:22:33.510
imperial powers had to help.

00:22:33.510 --> 00:22:37.200
- Public opinion in Great
Britain was very pro-Armenian.

00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:40.800
There were pro-Armenian societies
and parliamentary debates

00:22:40.800 --> 00:22:43.800
in which the Armenian issue
would come up again and again,

00:22:43.800 --> 00:22:47.989
and Great Britain would often
criticize the Ottoman Empire,

00:22:47.989 --> 00:22:51.210
and Armenians took this as support.

00:22:51.210 --> 00:22:53.969
- So it would be good to think about

00:22:53.969 --> 00:22:56.649
19th century Armenian history

00:22:56.649 --> 00:23:01.353
from a realistic perspective
of international relations.

00:23:02.280 --> 00:23:03.270
- [Diana] For their foolishness

00:23:03.270 --> 00:23:05.460
in trusting in European protection

00:23:05.460 --> 00:23:07.710
and hoping for European intervention,

00:23:07.710 --> 00:23:09.990
the unfortunate Armenians paid with

00:23:09.990 --> 00:23:12.024
rivers of their own blood,

00:23:12.024 --> 00:23:14.700
and for their crime of failure,

00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:16.893
they were made to wallow in that blood.

00:23:19.182 --> 00:23:21.720
- [Narrator] As her
writings traveled the globe,

00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:24.693
Diana received considerable
praise for her work.

00:23:25.660 --> 00:23:28.243
(gentle music)

00:23:34.239 --> 00:23:35.580
- Other women just simply

00:23:35.580 --> 00:23:39.780
didn't do these sorts of things,
and, surprisingly enough,

00:23:39.780 --> 00:23:43.020
all of the people that
she was involved with,

00:23:43.020 --> 00:23:46.410
the diplomats, the university academics,

00:23:46.410 --> 00:23:49.383
they all respected her very much.

00:23:49.383 --> 00:23:53.883
(Artsvi speaking in foreign language)

00:24:19.110 --> 00:24:20.670
- [Diana] I really do not care at all

00:24:20.670 --> 00:24:22.706
about myself individually,

00:24:22.706 --> 00:24:26.550
but I do care that the
truth should be known.

00:24:26.550 --> 00:24:30.570
Our Appeal was received at
the Hague on December 5th.

00:24:30.570 --> 00:24:32.730
Robbers are always fighting over

00:24:32.730 --> 00:24:36.960
the divisions of stolen
goods, and this is called war.

00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.460
The government has organized

00:24:38.460 --> 00:24:42.930
a system of outrage
for race extermination.

00:24:42.930 --> 00:24:45.870
- As to how many letters
she has written, God knows,

00:24:45.870 --> 00:24:47.280
because apparently she had been

00:24:47.280 --> 00:24:51.030
writing letters right and
left to all kinds of people,

00:24:51.030 --> 00:24:53.905
from missionaries to ministers

00:24:53.905 --> 00:24:58.905
to politicians to presidents to kings,

00:25:00.330 --> 00:25:04.950
humanitarian institutions,
Red Cross, plain individuals,

00:25:04.950 --> 00:25:07.920
whom she thought could
be of some assistance.

00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:09.357
- [Meline] Diana Apcar had

00:25:09.357 --> 00:25:13.950
more than 15 years' correspondence
with David Starr Jordan.

00:25:13.950 --> 00:25:17.130
He was a leading educator
and peace activist,

00:25:17.130 --> 00:25:20.703
and was the founding president
of Stanford University.

00:25:22.080 --> 00:25:23.910
- [Jordan] I am very much
interested in what you say

00:25:23.910 --> 00:25:25.683
in regard to affairs in Armenia.

00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:28.230
- [Diana] The Turkish government is

00:25:28.230 --> 00:25:30.843
determined to finish the Armenians.

00:25:31.742 --> 00:25:34.692
- [Jordan] I have just about
made up mind to go to Armenia.

00:25:35.730 --> 00:25:37.980
I am sending your letter
to President Wilson.

00:25:39.210 --> 00:25:41.850
- [Narrator] Diana's urgent
correspondence continued

00:25:41.850 --> 00:25:44.280
as international tensions snowballed,

00:25:44.280 --> 00:25:47.005
and the drumbeat to war grew louder.

00:25:47.005 --> 00:25:47.838
(audience applauding)

00:25:47.838 --> 00:25:51.300
"An enormous crowd collected
outside the palace.

00:25:51.300 --> 00:25:53.730
When they heard that
war had been declared,

00:25:53.730 --> 00:25:55.380
the excitement increased.

00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:57.726
The cheering was terrific."

00:25:57.726 --> 00:26:00.636
(cannons booming)

00:26:00.636 --> 00:26:03.469
(gunfire banging)

00:26:04.800 --> 00:26:06.180
World War I would become

00:26:06.180 --> 00:26:09.030
the deadliest conflict the world had seen,

00:26:09.030 --> 00:26:12.723
with more than 40 million
military and civilian casualties.

00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:17.070
The war brought an end
to four great empires

00:26:17.070 --> 00:26:19.443
and the rise of several nation states.

00:26:21.166 --> 00:26:22.350
- [Diana] I am writing out

00:26:22.350 --> 00:26:24.183
as many of the circulars as I can.

00:26:25.742 --> 00:26:28.342
- [Jordan] There is no
salvation for anybody in war.

00:26:29.340 --> 00:26:32.190
- [Diana] The great dragon
imperialism must be killed

00:26:32.190 --> 00:26:33.600
before the nations of the earth

00:26:33.600 --> 00:26:35.523
can be left to live in peace.

00:26:36.510 --> 00:26:38.220
- [Jordan] Democracy
is a form of government

00:26:38.220 --> 00:26:40.890
fitted for minding one's own business.

00:26:40.890 --> 00:26:43.276
- [Diana] To appoint a
commission of investigation.

00:26:43.276 --> 00:26:45.780
- [Jordan] We can not do anything

00:26:45.780 --> 00:26:48.240
- [Diana] Bring these
lurid facts to light.

00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:50.040
- [Jordan] Absolutely no way.

00:26:50.040 --> 00:26:51.870
- [Diana] Armenians are being dispossessed

00:26:51.870 --> 00:26:54.180
of their homes and lands.

00:26:54.180 --> 00:26:56.010
The Turkish government is, at present,

00:26:56.010 --> 00:26:58.860
preparing another Armenian massacre.

00:26:58.860 --> 00:27:01.290
- David Starr Jordan introduced her

00:27:01.290 --> 00:27:03.810
to many peacemakers and many politicians

00:27:03.810 --> 00:27:05.850
that Diana should contact.

00:27:05.850 --> 00:27:08.250
- [Diana] His Excellency Mr. Kosai Inouye,

00:27:08.250 --> 00:27:11.010
my dear Mr. Edmonds, dear
Professor Munsterberg,

00:27:11.010 --> 00:27:15.570
Baroness von Sutterer, dear
Monsieur Golay, dear Dr. Gobat.

00:27:15.570 --> 00:27:16.890
Required that Armenia

00:27:16.890 --> 00:27:19.299
should remain under Turkish domination.

00:27:19.299 --> 00:27:23.520
I am asking a special favor
for these poor Armenians.

00:27:23.520 --> 00:27:27.260
Yours very gratefully and
cordially, Diana Agabeg Apcar.

00:27:28.125 --> 00:27:33.125
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)

00:27:57.358 --> 00:28:00.108
(fire crackling)

00:28:05.266 --> 00:28:07.849
(crow squawks)

00:28:09.923 --> 00:28:10.756
No!

00:28:10.756 --> 00:28:13.799
(crow squawks)
(somber music)

00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:16.342
(glass clatters)

00:28:16.342 --> 00:28:19.092
(fire crackling)

00:28:24.121 --> 00:28:26.788
(paper rustles)

00:28:34.170 --> 00:28:35.870
- [Woman] She's burning her books!

00:28:38.280 --> 00:28:39.483
Are you all right?

00:28:41.070 --> 00:28:44.514
She works too much. She needs to rest.

00:28:44.514 --> 00:28:47.097
(solemn music)

00:28:50.190 --> 00:28:52.227
- [Diana] My faith has trembled.

00:29:00.358 --> 00:29:03.108
(walls creaking)

00:29:14.099 --> 00:29:17.514
(object creaks)

00:29:17.514 --> 00:29:20.097
(wall banging)

00:29:23.622 --> 00:29:26.289
(ominous music)

00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:34.680
I have had a nervous breakdown

00:29:34.680 --> 00:29:37.286
and could not write after that.

00:29:37.286 --> 00:29:41.940
I hope to begin my work
again after a little rest.

00:29:41.940 --> 00:29:45.723
Anyhow, all my losses
go into God's treasury.

00:29:45.723 --> 00:29:49.713
Let only Armenia be delivered
from the Turkish hell.

00:29:51.594 --> 00:29:56.594
(dramatic music)
(people screaming)

00:29:59.869 --> 00:30:02.010
- Under the cover of war,

00:30:02.010 --> 00:30:05.310
the Young Turks could
contemplate final solutions.

00:30:05.310 --> 00:30:06.840
During peacetime, they would have faced

00:30:06.840 --> 00:30:10.093
too much outside pressure, but in wartime,

00:30:10.093 --> 00:30:12.840
other options were available to them.

00:30:12.840 --> 00:30:14.400
So the genocide itself is really

00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:16.980
the culmination of a series of causes

00:30:16.980 --> 00:30:18.210
that have to do with property,

00:30:18.210 --> 00:30:19.410
that have to do with demography,

00:30:19.410 --> 00:30:22.816
that have to do with new
ideologies of race and nation

00:30:22.816 --> 00:30:25.140
that gripped the Ottoman Empire.

00:30:25.140 --> 00:30:27.660
Genocide often happens
during war and revolution.

00:30:27.660 --> 00:30:30.993
The Ottoman Empire was at war
and it just had a revolution.

00:30:32.390 --> 00:30:34.260
- [Narrator] "When the Turkish authorities

00:30:34.260 --> 00:30:36.360
gave the orders for these deportations,

00:30:36.360 --> 00:30:39.619
they were merely giving the
death warrant to a whole race.

00:30:39.619 --> 00:30:41.793
They understood this well."

00:30:41.793 --> 00:30:45.030
(solemn music)

00:30:45.030 --> 00:30:50.030
- When I asked my father
how it was over there,

00:30:51.099 --> 00:30:53.377
he would just go berserk.

00:30:53.377 --> 00:30:54.536
"You don't know."

00:30:54.536 --> 00:30:57.428
(Peter speaking in foreign language)

00:30:57.428 --> 00:31:00.570
That's what he would
say. "You don't know."

00:31:00.570 --> 00:31:01.403
- In a way,

00:31:01.403 --> 00:31:06.403
at the heart of this whole
genocide experience is, you know,

00:31:06.651 --> 00:31:11.493
it's being eliminated by the
people you are closest to.

00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:18.200
- My two uncles were arrested
in Mezareh in July of 1915.

00:31:19.623 --> 00:31:22.740
They were tossed in with all the males,

00:31:22.740 --> 00:31:26.039
who were of draft age, to be conscripted,

00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:28.890
but, of course, they were all
gonna be taken out of town

00:31:28.890 --> 00:31:32.385
and shot or murdered
in one way or another,

00:31:32.385 --> 00:31:37.385
and my Aunt Yelsa was able
to get ahold of some money

00:31:37.582 --> 00:31:42.562
and go and bribe one of
the guards in the prison

00:31:42.562 --> 00:31:45.480
to release the two kids.

00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:48.703
One was about 12 and one was 9.

00:31:48.703 --> 00:31:51.286
(somber music)

00:31:52.560 --> 00:31:54.060
- [Narrator] Survivors of the genocide

00:31:54.060 --> 00:31:56.010
bore testimony to its horrors

00:31:56.010 --> 00:31:58.500
and the daring of their escapes.

00:31:58.500 --> 00:32:01.950
Among them was Krikor Yeghoyan.

00:32:01.950 --> 00:32:02.783
- I'm going to read

00:32:02.783 --> 00:32:06.603
the memoirs of my great
grandfather Krikor's experiences.

00:32:08.017 --> 00:32:09.450
"The deportation of my village,

00:32:09.450 --> 00:32:12.382
Koulou did not take them too far."

00:32:12.382 --> 00:32:14.520
- [Krikor] They were
slaughtered and butchered

00:32:14.520 --> 00:32:16.800
on the slopes of Doros Mountains.

00:32:16.800 --> 00:32:19.913
Even kids were taught how to kill a man."

00:32:19.913 --> 00:32:24.913
(wind howling)
(birds squawking)

00:32:25.174 --> 00:32:28.650
- I would imagine that Krikor didn't have,

00:32:28.650 --> 00:32:30.750
he probably felt this was it,

00:32:30.750 --> 00:32:33.390
and, you know, he was
either gonna die here

00:32:33.390 --> 00:32:36.149
or die trying to escape.

00:32:36.149 --> 00:32:38.820
(wind howling)
(somber music)

00:32:38.820 --> 00:32:41.688
- [Krikor] Toward morning, I
fixed a place under the floor,

00:32:41.688 --> 00:32:45.723
a subterranean hole, halfway
beneath the floor in the earth.

00:32:47.280 --> 00:32:49.023
Seven weeks went by.

00:32:50.370 --> 00:32:53.583
Life became unbearable in that hole.

00:32:54.660 --> 00:32:56.593
I could not eat or drink.

00:32:56.593 --> 00:32:58.653
I was more dead than alive.

00:32:59.670 --> 00:33:03.690
I decided life was not
worth living this way.

00:33:03.690 --> 00:33:07.059
I had reconciled to the idea of death.

00:33:07.059 --> 00:33:10.950
Now, nothing and nobody
seemed that important to me

00:33:10.950 --> 00:33:12.453
to induce me otherwise.

00:33:14.275 --> 00:33:15.900
- [Bryan] You know, they were
just trying to figure out

00:33:15.900 --> 00:33:17.160
how to survive, day to day.

00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:22.160
So they heard that there were
some Kurds who had a barn.

00:33:22.350 --> 00:33:24.000
They were allowing the
Armenians to live in there,

00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:27.690
so they went to that barn and they lived,

00:33:27.690 --> 00:33:29.760
but, you know, the thing
about Armenians, right?

00:33:29.760 --> 00:33:30.687
They're very creative people,

00:33:30.687 --> 00:33:34.173
and they get bored real easy
if they're not doing something.

00:33:35.088 --> 00:33:38.010
- When reading Yeghoyan's memoir,

00:33:38.010 --> 00:33:40.800
it was particularly poignant for me

00:33:40.800 --> 00:33:43.230
to see a similar reference to

00:33:43.230 --> 00:33:48.230
Armenians building irrigation
systems in Kurdish villages,

00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:51.882
even after the genocide.

00:33:51.882 --> 00:33:53.707
Here's that section.

00:33:53.707 --> 00:33:58.157
"We built fountains,
lakes, even waterfalls."

00:33:58.157 --> 00:34:01.590
Very powerful, because
it really demonstrates

00:34:01.590 --> 00:34:05.215
how the narrative of the Armenian,

00:34:05.215 --> 00:34:08.336
who was a builder in the Ottoman Empire,

00:34:08.336 --> 00:34:12.630
continued on even after the attempt

00:34:12.630 --> 00:34:15.048
to exterminate the Armenians

00:34:15.048 --> 00:34:18.887
and empty historic Armenia
of its inhabitants.

00:34:18.887 --> 00:34:20.760
(singer vocalizing)
(somber music)

00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:22.980
- [Narrator] As the news
of the genocide spread,

00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:24.900
Diana's long-held anxieties

00:34:24.900 --> 00:34:27.810
for her fellow Armenians were realized.

00:34:27.810 --> 00:34:31.113
Her determination to
help them only increased.

00:34:32.486 --> 00:34:34.983
- [Diana] Have you forgotten poor Armenia?

00:34:35.864 --> 00:34:38.490
The Turkish government has driven out

00:34:38.490 --> 00:34:40.440
from all the towns and villages

00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:43.050
in Turkish Armenia and Asia Minor

00:34:43.050 --> 00:34:47.249
one and a half million Armenians.

00:34:47.249 --> 00:34:50.850
Our poor people are
driven out of their homes

00:34:50.850 --> 00:34:55.050
without food and clothing into
the Arabian Syrian deserts,

00:34:55.050 --> 00:34:56.865
a march of months.

00:34:56.865 --> 00:35:01.620
They get an hour's notice and
they have to set off at once.

00:35:01.620 --> 00:35:03.660
They must march and march.

00:35:03.660 --> 00:35:05.730
Sick, aged, children, women

00:35:05.730 --> 00:35:08.163
are falling on the roadsides and dying.

00:35:11.333 --> 00:35:13.860
(solemn music)

00:35:13.860 --> 00:35:16.050
- [Krikor] Soon, it wasn't safe to hide

00:35:16.050 --> 00:35:18.390
in the Kurdish village anymore.

00:35:18.390 --> 00:35:21.737
We started on our way. Bandits robbed us.

00:35:21.737 --> 00:35:25.860
The terrain was almost
insurmountable barefoot.

00:35:25.860 --> 00:35:28.920
We climbed a snow-covered
mountain and watched Erzinga

00:35:28.920 --> 00:35:31.625
bathing in the floodlights of electricity.

00:35:31.625 --> 00:35:34.168
Erzinga belonged to Russia.

00:35:34.168 --> 00:35:36.100
I began to work.

00:35:36.100 --> 00:35:38.280
Everything went well for a while

00:35:38.280 --> 00:35:42.120
until Bolshevism broke out and
the military was on the move.

00:35:44.421 --> 00:35:47.100
- [Peter] They had to
go through all kinds of

00:35:47.100 --> 00:35:51.030
very high and treacherous,
dangerous mountain passes

00:35:51.030 --> 00:35:54.840
to get to Erzurum, where
they met, of course,

00:35:54.840 --> 00:35:57.292
the Russians, who were friendly,

00:35:57.292 --> 00:36:01.203
and from then on, they
thought they were safe.

00:36:02.163 --> 00:36:05.430
- [Krikor] On the way,
I found Leon Soulajian

00:36:05.430 --> 00:36:08.580
sitting with a little woman
on the roadside on the snow.

00:36:08.580 --> 00:36:09.967
I approached him and said,

00:36:09.967 --> 00:36:12.150
"Are you crazy, sitting down like that?

00:36:12.150 --> 00:36:13.747
You will freeze to death."

00:36:13.747 --> 00:36:17.082
"Oh, well," he said, "I
can not walk anymore,

00:36:17.082 --> 00:36:20.317
and I have no more desire left to live."

00:36:20.317 --> 00:36:23.370
"Get up," I said, "and mount my horse."

00:36:23.370 --> 00:36:26.370
Which he did, and then we put
the little woman on the horse,

00:36:26.370 --> 00:36:29.253
and felt happy knowing we saved two lives.

00:36:30.420 --> 00:36:33.990
- As an Armenian, in every almost family,

00:36:33.990 --> 00:36:35.940
we have stories about genocide,

00:36:35.940 --> 00:36:38.220
and about what we call "Paghipagh,"

00:36:38.220 --> 00:36:41.643
which means "run away" or
"run, run," kind of thing.

00:36:43.336 --> 00:36:45.240
Armenians were spread between

00:36:45.240 --> 00:36:48.492
the Ottoman, Russian, and Persian empires.

00:36:48.492 --> 00:36:51.270
The Ottoman authorities
orchestrated a plan

00:36:51.270 --> 00:36:53.916
to destroy all the
Armenians in their territory

00:36:53.916 --> 00:36:57.249
through massacre,
deportation, and starvation,

00:36:57.249 --> 00:37:00.933
writing the textbook for
modern genocide in the process.

00:37:02.341 --> 00:37:06.000
Those who could escape
went in all directions,

00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:08.190
south through the desert to Syria

00:37:08.190 --> 00:37:10.560
and eventually to modern day Lebanon.

00:37:10.560 --> 00:37:12.030
Some made it to Europe,

00:37:12.030 --> 00:37:14.880
while others went north
into Russian territory,

00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:17.250
and then east, the beginning of a journey

00:37:17.250 --> 00:37:20.190
that would take them all
the way to the Pacific.

00:37:20.190 --> 00:37:23.370
- It is important to put
these pieces together,

00:37:23.370 --> 00:37:25.830
to have an understanding of

00:37:25.830 --> 00:37:28.170
the scattering of the Armenian nation

00:37:28.170 --> 00:37:30.510
following the Armenian genocide.

00:37:30.510 --> 00:37:34.650
- There's no pattern to
survival. It was very random.

00:37:34.650 --> 00:37:36.360
Sometimes it was just

00:37:36.360 --> 00:37:38.040
being in the right place at the right time

00:37:38.040 --> 00:37:39.423
allowed you to survive.

00:37:40.770 --> 00:37:43.200
- [Narrator] And in
Japan, Diana Apcar's work

00:37:43.200 --> 00:37:45.892
was about to take a new direction.

00:37:45.892 --> 00:37:47.760
The Japanese officials didn't know

00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:50.100
what to make of the
first Armenian refugees

00:37:50.100 --> 00:37:52.290
to arrive on their shores,

00:37:52.290 --> 00:37:54.483
and the Armenians were just as bewildered.

00:37:55.433 --> 00:38:00.433
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)

00:38:04.230 --> 00:38:06.330
Diana returned to her writing,

00:38:06.330 --> 00:38:09.873
but she could not be sure her
words were having any impact.

00:38:11.250 --> 00:38:12.960
- [Diana] The irreparable loss,

00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:15.600
the anguish that will never cease,

00:38:15.600 --> 00:38:20.553
to murder more than one million
Armenians, non-combatants.

00:38:21.960 --> 00:38:23.490
You are looking for my husband

00:38:23.490 --> 00:38:25.920
to translate something for you?

00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:27.183
Perhaps I can help?

00:38:29.824 --> 00:38:32.580
This letter is in Armenian.

00:38:32.580 --> 00:38:35.230
These people need assistance.
Please take me to them.

00:38:36.822 --> 00:38:39.540
All of my years of endless writing,

00:38:39.540 --> 00:38:42.753
books, articles, letters,
has it changed anything?

00:38:44.954 --> 00:38:49.371
(Diana speaking in foreign language)

00:38:56.958 --> 00:39:00.720
- Talking about their feelings
coming and arriving in Japan,

00:39:00.720 --> 00:39:03.112
I can understand that they felt

00:39:03.112 --> 00:39:05.880
probably like on another planet,

00:39:05.880 --> 00:39:08.340
completely different culture,

00:39:08.340 --> 00:39:13.340
and they came here just
for transit, not to stay.

00:39:14.096 --> 00:39:17.310
- All these people came
with their horror stories of

00:39:17.310 --> 00:39:20.070
what they had gone through,
how much they had lost,

00:39:20.070 --> 00:39:22.800
and, of course, they had
nowhere to go, no hope,

00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:25.980
no chance of picking up
the pieces of their life.

00:39:25.980 --> 00:39:28.530
- And it is remarkable
what people survive.

00:39:28.530 --> 00:39:31.521
I mean, it is just amazing to me.

00:39:31.521 --> 00:39:33.750
You know, you read these accounts,

00:39:33.750 --> 00:39:35.790
and they're sort of very straightforward,

00:39:35.790 --> 00:39:37.327
and so you're just sort of reading along.

00:39:37.327 --> 00:39:39.240
"And then I did this and then I did that."

00:39:39.240 --> 00:39:40.789
And then you want to say,

00:39:40.789 --> 00:39:42.639
"And you did that, and you did that?"

00:39:44.550 --> 00:39:46.170
- [Narrator] Traveling was hard,

00:39:46.170 --> 00:39:49.105
and some were able to
move faster than others.

00:39:49.105 --> 00:39:52.740
Working their way east,
the refugees, like Krikor,

00:39:52.740 --> 00:39:54.887
scraped by however they could.

00:39:54.887 --> 00:39:56.070
(dog barking)

00:39:56.070 --> 00:39:57.663
- They would work for anything.

00:39:59.220 --> 00:40:03.240
My father built a bed for some,

00:40:03.240 --> 00:40:06.484
I don't know whether it was
a Bolshevik or a Menshevik,

00:40:06.484 --> 00:40:10.024
but he was an officer

00:40:10.024 --> 00:40:14.730
in the Red Army or the White
Army, I don't know which,

00:40:14.730 --> 00:40:19.113
and my father knew
nothing about carpentry,

00:40:20.580 --> 00:40:22.473
and the story goes,

00:40:23.774 --> 00:40:27.060
when the guy got in the bed, it collapsed.

00:40:27.060 --> 00:40:29.643
(Peter laughs)

00:40:30.597 --> 00:40:33.180
(somber music)

00:40:42.600 --> 00:40:45.150
- [Krikor] In those days, 1917,

00:40:45.150 --> 00:40:47.550
Tsar Nicholas was overthrown.

00:40:47.550 --> 00:40:50.883
Bolshevism broke out and the
military was on the move.

00:40:51.750 --> 00:40:55.380
The Turks were getting
organized for another attack.

00:40:55.380 --> 00:40:57.360
I made it my business to free myself

00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:00.122
from this chaos, from this hell.

00:41:00.122 --> 00:41:02.705
(somber music)

00:41:06.360 --> 00:41:09.300
The fields were scorched and bone dry.

00:41:09.300 --> 00:41:11.130
The little towns and
villages were deserted

00:41:11.130 --> 00:41:12.541
and lay in ruins.

00:41:12.541 --> 00:41:15.124
(somber music)

00:41:19.409 --> 00:41:21.826
(gun clicks)

00:41:48.630 --> 00:41:50.910
We made fire in an empty house.

00:41:50.910 --> 00:41:54.240
This beautiful home
afforded so much happiness

00:41:54.240 --> 00:41:55.757
to an Armenian family once.

00:41:55.757 --> 00:41:56.590
(gunshot bangs)

00:41:56.590 --> 00:41:58.920
Now it stood silently mourning the fate

00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:01.384
of its one-time occupants.

00:42:01.384 --> 00:42:03.967
(somber music)

00:42:24.390 --> 00:42:26.400
We visited many places.

00:42:26.400 --> 00:42:28.284
No open market, no bread,

00:42:28.284 --> 00:42:31.350
only thousands of people
wandering aimlessly,

00:42:31.350 --> 00:42:32.790
like the waves of the sea

00:42:32.790 --> 00:42:34.890
that hit and retreat from the shore

00:42:34.890 --> 00:42:36.997
with ever-widening ripples.

00:42:36.997 --> 00:42:39.580
(somber music)

00:42:45.570 --> 00:42:48.273
Yes, war is a cruel game.

00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:50.760
The only purpose it serves is

00:42:50.760 --> 00:42:54.561
to bring out the latent
beastly nature in human beings.

00:42:54.561 --> 00:42:57.144
(somber music)

00:43:04.080 --> 00:43:06.990
My eyes rested on Mount Ararat.

00:43:06.990 --> 00:43:08.100
How wonderful.

00:43:08.100 --> 00:43:11.760
For a moment, my beleaguered
past was forgotten.

00:43:11.760 --> 00:43:15.300
Poor old man Ararat. I do not envy you.

00:43:15.300 --> 00:43:19.200
You have seen brothers
rise and kill each other.

00:43:19.200 --> 00:43:22.410
You must have shed an awful
lot of tears over them,

00:43:22.410 --> 00:43:24.663
enough for another destructive flood.

00:43:26.852 --> 00:43:30.450
- [Narrator] Back in Yokohama,
groups of Armenian refugees

00:43:30.450 --> 00:43:35.010
continued to trickle in,
seeking a way to reach America.

00:43:35.010 --> 00:43:37.833
Diana thought she was now
prepared to help them.

00:43:38.940 --> 00:43:39.960
- I do know that

00:43:39.960 --> 00:43:43.860
you have to have papers
to be able to travel.

00:43:43.860 --> 00:43:48.860
and I don't know that, none
of these people had passports.

00:43:50.299 --> 00:43:54.749
Probably a lot of them didn't
even have identification.

00:43:54.749 --> 00:43:56.973
Now, what do you do with people like that?

00:43:56.973 --> 00:44:00.390
They have to have papers.

00:44:00.390 --> 00:44:02.520
They have to have families in

00:44:02.520 --> 00:44:06.510
the United States or Canada or
South America vouch for them

00:44:06.510 --> 00:44:09.930
and say they'll take care
of them when they come.

00:44:09.930 --> 00:44:12.330
All of this, you know, is required,

00:44:12.330 --> 00:44:15.360
and no country is going
to just open the door

00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:16.440
and say, "Come on in."

00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:19.080
You know, you have to have papers,

00:44:19.080 --> 00:44:22.500
and she had to do all of that paperwork.

00:44:22.500 --> 00:44:24.420
- [Narrator] Further complicating things,

00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:26.537
many passenger ships were overbooked

00:44:26.537 --> 00:44:29.868
or had been called to wartime service.

00:44:29.868 --> 00:44:31.679
Days turned to weeks,

00:44:31.679 --> 00:44:35.550
and many Armenian refugees
would spend months in Japan

00:44:35.550 --> 00:44:37.713
before being able to cross the Pacific.

00:44:38.608 --> 00:44:41.191
(gentle music)

00:44:43.020 --> 00:44:44.970
- [Diana] While I was giving birth to you,

00:44:44.970 --> 00:44:47.670
almost all our belongings
were repossessed,

00:44:47.670 --> 00:44:49.773
but I was able to save this jewelry.

00:44:51.334 --> 00:44:54.303
I remember it as though it were yesterday.

00:44:57.982 --> 00:45:00.270
Now is the time to sell it

00:45:00.270 --> 00:45:03.870
and put the money to good
use helping these people.

00:45:03.870 --> 00:45:05.070
While they were being slaughtered,

00:45:05.070 --> 00:45:08.490
I was wasting paper writing endlessly.

00:45:08.490 --> 00:45:11.940
All those letters and
books, has it saved anyone?

00:45:11.940 --> 00:45:13.683
Now is my chance.

00:45:15.060 --> 00:45:18.411
- She rented houses around her own house

00:45:18.411 --> 00:45:21.990
to provide shelter to these people,

00:45:21.990 --> 00:45:25.353
to find them jobs to make ends meet.

00:45:26.425 --> 00:45:30.270
When you're an asylum
refugee, you go to a country.

00:45:30.270 --> 00:45:32.100
You have to stay there
for about three months

00:45:32.100 --> 00:45:33.450
until your visa is processed,

00:45:33.450 --> 00:45:36.900
and then you have access to this country.

00:45:36.900 --> 00:45:38.640
So that was, I guess, the situation.

00:45:38.640 --> 00:45:41.580
Probably even worse and
even more fluid for them,

00:45:41.580 --> 00:45:45.615
because, again, all of these mechanisms

00:45:45.615 --> 00:45:49.314
that we take for granted
today did not exist back then.

00:45:49.314 --> 00:45:53.314
(Nakajima speaking in Japanese)

00:46:09.949 --> 00:46:12.739
- You don't do it for glory.

00:46:12.739 --> 00:46:17.739
You don't do it to get
into heaven, per se.

00:46:18.630 --> 00:46:21.990
You just do it because
it's the right thing to do,

00:46:21.990 --> 00:46:24.543
and your job is to do good work.

00:46:26.070 --> 00:46:28.110
- [Narrator] While the bulk
of the Armenian genocide

00:46:28.110 --> 00:46:31.530
took place in 1915 in Anatolia,

00:46:31.530 --> 00:46:35.610
the violence continued
in waves over many years.

00:46:35.610 --> 00:46:39.150
The earliest refugees to arrive
in Japan were only the first

00:46:39.150 --> 00:46:41.700
in a small but steady stream of Armenians

00:46:41.700 --> 00:46:43.440
fleeing their homeland.

00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:45.870
Some, like Krikor Yeghoyan,

00:46:45.870 --> 00:46:47.970
realized their best chance of survival

00:46:47.970 --> 00:46:50.133
would be to continue north into Russia.

00:46:51.191 --> 00:46:53.100
(singer vocalizing)

00:46:53.100 --> 00:46:55.560
- [Krikor] We got on board
the ship in Astrakan,

00:46:55.560 --> 00:46:58.200
and, from there, we
went straight to Samara.

00:46:58.200 --> 00:47:00.363
That sounded like a good plan, I thought.

00:47:01.350 --> 00:47:03.720
We let down a pail and got some water.

00:47:03.720 --> 00:47:06.150
It was sweet water. It was spring.

00:47:06.150 --> 00:47:07.350
The snow was melting

00:47:07.350 --> 00:47:10.230
and feeding and swelling the River Volga.

00:47:10.230 --> 00:47:12.060
Our steam-liner sailed up the river

00:47:12.060 --> 00:47:14.073
for five days and five nights.

00:47:17.040 --> 00:47:19.980
Eventually, we got into Samara Harbor.

00:47:19.980 --> 00:47:21.870
We jumped out any way we could,

00:47:21.870 --> 00:47:25.344
piled up our meager belongings,
and waited for dawn.

00:47:25.344 --> 00:47:30.060
(singer vocalizing)
(seagulls squawking)

00:47:30.060 --> 00:47:33.360
Dawn came. So did confusion and dilemma.

00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:36.480
We got caught again between
two fighting factions.

00:47:36.480 --> 00:47:38.520
Bullets rained all around.
(gunshots banging)

00:47:38.520 --> 00:47:41.700
Bullets and bombs ignited the oil tanks,

00:47:41.700 --> 00:47:43.890
causing a wide-spread conflagration

00:47:43.890 --> 00:47:46.143
that engulfed a large part of the city.

00:47:47.340 --> 00:47:49.140
- I know for a fact

00:47:49.140 --> 00:47:54.140
my parents and grandparents
went from Samara,

00:47:54.690 --> 00:47:58.830
where they finally got to,
but they were detained there

00:47:58.830 --> 00:48:03.830
by the Bolsheviks for over a
year's time, just in Samara,

00:48:05.370 --> 00:48:07.747
and it drove my father crazy.

00:48:07.747 --> 00:48:11.043
- [Narrator] Russia was
consumed by its own revolution.

00:48:11.970 --> 00:48:13.890
After overthrowing the tsar

00:48:13.890 --> 00:48:16.410
and beginning to consolidate their power,

00:48:16.410 --> 00:48:19.803
the Red and White Armies raged
in battles in the streets.

00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:22.980
- I think my grandfather, Anooshavan,

00:48:22.980 --> 00:48:25.230
decided that they needed to move quickly,

00:48:25.230 --> 00:48:27.240
and that the best and safest route

00:48:27.240 --> 00:48:29.790
would be across the railway through Russia

00:48:29.790 --> 00:48:31.230
rather than to try to brave

00:48:31.230 --> 00:48:34.140
going through the Western
Front during World War I

00:48:34.140 --> 00:48:36.570
when Germany and Russia were fighting.

00:48:36.570 --> 00:48:38.610
- My father had been on the move

00:48:38.610 --> 00:48:40.560
basically for several years.

00:48:40.560 --> 00:48:43.729
He wasn't staying in any one place.

00:48:43.729 --> 00:48:48.120
We found this picture of
my father in a kimono,

00:48:48.120 --> 00:48:50.820
full-dress kimono, so, to me,

00:48:50.820 --> 00:48:54.300
this was evidence that
he had been in Japan.

00:48:54.300 --> 00:48:56.897
- [Narrator] The refugees
had come thousands of miles.

00:48:56.897 --> 00:48:59.340
Those who had passports
bore the evidence of

00:48:59.340 --> 00:49:01.650
the long and dangerous journey,

00:49:01.650 --> 00:49:04.170
which had yet to reach its conclusion.

00:49:04.170 --> 00:49:07.920
If they could make it to
Japan, there was help.

00:49:07.920 --> 00:49:10.909
- [Barlow] Diana Apcar helped refugees

00:49:10.909 --> 00:49:14.940
with logistics, food, a place to stay.

00:49:14.940 --> 00:49:18.840
Diana Apcar actually loaned
40 yen to my grandfather,

00:49:18.840 --> 00:49:21.510
and he relates in his memoir that,

00:49:21.510 --> 00:49:23.100
when he got to San Francisco,

00:49:23.100 --> 00:49:26.239
he sent back $25 to repay that loan.

00:49:26.239 --> 00:49:29.280
- The houses on the top of
the hill were quite nice,

00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:31.230
but the ones down below

00:49:31.230 --> 00:49:33.690
were little Japanese houses, you know,

00:49:33.690 --> 00:49:36.903
and that's where she kept the refugees.

00:49:37.890 --> 00:49:41.130
- [Diana] They are desperate
to go home, but can not.

00:49:41.130 --> 00:49:44.973
They have no homeland and so
they go in search of a new one.

00:49:47.970 --> 00:49:51.180
- [Narrator] In small groups
or families traveling together,

00:49:51.180 --> 00:49:54.450
refugees set sail on one more journey,

00:49:54.450 --> 00:49:56.894
a new life in a new country.

00:49:56.894 --> 00:49:59.670
They wouldn't forget
what they'd been through.

00:49:59.670 --> 00:50:01.586
They'd been forever changed by it.

00:50:01.586 --> 00:50:03.349
(gentle music)
(seagulls squawking)

00:50:03.349 --> 00:50:05.040
(boat horn blares)

00:50:05.040 --> 00:50:07.500
- How do you deal with these memories?

00:50:07.500 --> 00:50:10.350
You know, the memories of suffering,

00:50:10.350 --> 00:50:13.410
the memories of these awful things

00:50:13.410 --> 00:50:18.011
that were done that basically
rendered you powerless,

00:50:18.011 --> 00:50:20.913
and the struggle becomes

00:50:20.913 --> 00:50:25.320
around, I think, the
feelings of powerlessness

00:50:25.320 --> 00:50:27.240
and harm that was done to you,

00:50:27.240 --> 00:50:30.540
and I don't think you ever get over that,

00:50:30.540 --> 00:50:33.827
but how do you live through
that to something else?

00:50:33.827 --> 00:50:34.987
(train rattling)

00:50:34.987 --> 00:50:37.290
- [Narrator] "All through the
turmoil of the revolution,

00:50:37.290 --> 00:50:39.690
the great iron way that traverses Russia

00:50:39.690 --> 00:50:43.380
from Vladivostok to Petrograd,
6,000 thousand miles,

00:50:43.380 --> 00:50:44.550
was kept going."

00:50:44.550 --> 00:50:49.133
(vocalist singing in foreign language)

00:50:54.163 --> 00:50:56.400
- [Krikor] We too, including refugees

00:50:56.400 --> 00:50:59.880
from all parts of the
world, got into wagons.

00:50:59.880 --> 00:51:02.520
Those railroad cars were like houses.

00:51:02.520 --> 00:51:04.830
The only discomfort we
suffered was our tea,

00:51:04.830 --> 00:51:06.273
which kept spilling over us.

00:51:07.350 --> 00:51:09.573
It took us six months to travel this way,

00:51:10.410 --> 00:51:12.270
and like an endless caravan,

00:51:12.270 --> 00:51:14.523
we were meandering our way toward Siberia.

00:51:15.426 --> 00:51:20.009
(vocalist singing in foreign language)

00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:29.100
- Traveling all the way across Russia,

00:51:29.100 --> 00:51:32.640
we're not talking about
a couple hundred miles.

00:51:32.640 --> 00:51:35.640
We're talking about thousands of miles,

00:51:35.640 --> 00:51:39.090
and, you know, my father is
somebody who probably had

00:51:39.090 --> 00:51:43.770
no experience outside
of Turkey, growing up,

00:51:43.770 --> 00:51:47.730
and I don't even know what
kind of traveling within Turkey

00:51:47.730 --> 00:51:49.620
they did as a family,

00:51:49.620 --> 00:51:53.670
and he's a teenager, that, you
know, he was able to do this,

00:51:53.670 --> 00:51:55.980
having lost his whole family.

00:51:55.980 --> 00:51:58.650
- They would move and they
would work and make some money,

00:51:58.650 --> 00:52:02.160
and then they would be able
to afford to travel again.

00:52:02.160 --> 00:52:05.130
Because he had people with
him, they had a lot of skills.

00:52:05.130 --> 00:52:06.870
You know, he was a carpenter.

00:52:06.870 --> 00:52:08.370
You know, the other guy was probably good

00:52:08.370 --> 00:52:11.340
as a metallurgist or a blacksmith.

00:52:11.340 --> 00:52:13.200
So, you know, they would go to a place,

00:52:13.200 --> 00:52:14.280
they'd work, make some money,

00:52:14.280 --> 00:52:16.580
and they'd just keep on moving.

00:52:16.580 --> 00:52:19.163
(somber music)

00:52:20.063 --> 00:52:24.646
(vocalist singing in foreign language)

00:52:59.310 --> 00:53:02.010
- [Narrator] For refugees
traveling east by train,

00:53:02.010 --> 00:53:05.283
the end of the road was the
Russian city of Vladivostok.

00:53:06.210 --> 00:53:11.010
In July 1917, the American Red
Cross opened its branch there

00:53:11.010 --> 00:53:13.290
to help the thousands of refugees

00:53:13.290 --> 00:53:16.784
fleeing the fighting and
violence of World War I.

00:53:16.784 --> 00:53:20.250
Here, Armenians found
company among Russians,

00:53:20.250 --> 00:53:23.253
and numerous other refugees
from neighboring states.

00:53:24.157 --> 00:53:25.620
"The Red Cross could hold out

00:53:25.620 --> 00:53:27.780
a timely flame of hope to the bewildered,

00:53:27.780 --> 00:53:31.137
suffering millions that poured
through the Russian steppes."

00:53:32.254 --> 00:53:34.837
(solemn music)

00:53:42.690 --> 00:53:45.180
It became harder and harder for Armenians

00:53:45.180 --> 00:53:47.220
to reach America on their own.

00:53:47.220 --> 00:53:50.940
Diana worked diligently to
find sponsors in America,

00:53:50.940 --> 00:53:52.890
identification documents,

00:53:52.890 --> 00:53:56.703
and ship passage for the
Armenians stranded at Vladivostok.

00:53:58.380 --> 00:54:00.630
- [Diana] For ship
passage to San Francisco,

00:54:00.630 --> 00:54:02.250
the rates are as follows.

00:54:02.250 --> 00:54:06.333
Third class, 102 yen.
Second class, 200 yen.

00:54:08.550 --> 00:54:12.240
Dear sir, you will do a
very great kindness indeed

00:54:12.240 --> 00:54:15.150
to the Armenian refugees
if you will kindly demand

00:54:15.150 --> 00:54:17.670
from the Armenian Committee the passports

00:54:17.670 --> 00:54:19.533
which they supply to refugees.

00:54:20.940 --> 00:54:23.310
Excellent sir, I am appealing to you

00:54:23.310 --> 00:54:25.230
on behalf of those of my nationals

00:54:25.230 --> 00:54:28.800
who arrive here via Siberia
with the intention and purpose

00:54:28.800 --> 00:54:31.140
of proceeding to the United States.

00:54:31.140 --> 00:54:33.600
I know for a fact that
every one of these is

00:54:33.600 --> 00:54:37.530
as loyal to the United States
as the most loyal American.

00:54:37.530 --> 00:54:40.290
Indeed, an oppressed and hunted people

00:54:40.290 --> 00:54:42.660
couldn't be anything else but loyal

00:54:42.660 --> 00:54:44.733
to the country that is kind to them.

00:54:45.660 --> 00:54:48.180
- This is a letter that we found,

00:54:48.180 --> 00:54:52.595
my family found that had been
in my father's possession,

00:54:52.595 --> 00:54:57.595
and it's dated April 28th,
1919, in Vladivostok, Siberia.

00:54:59.827 --> 00:55:03.480
"To whom it may concern,
Mr. Keshgegian escaped from

00:55:03.480 --> 00:55:06.660
the Turkish massacres in his own country,

00:55:06.660 --> 00:55:09.990
made his way across Russia to Vladivostok,

00:55:09.990 --> 00:55:13.472
and has been in our barracks
for about seven months.

00:55:13.472 --> 00:55:16.140
Mr. Keshgegian expects to leave here

00:55:16.140 --> 00:55:18.900
in a few days for the United States.

00:55:18.900 --> 00:55:20.970
His conduct while in the barracks

00:55:20.970 --> 00:55:25.590
leads us to believe that he
will make a desirable citizen."

00:55:25.590 --> 00:55:29.520
And it's signed, "T.J. Edmonds,
Director of Civil Affairs,

00:55:29.520 --> 00:55:32.877
Eastern Siberia, The American Red Cross."

00:55:33.930 --> 00:55:36.660
- [Narrator] Here, Diana
played a critical role.

00:55:36.660 --> 00:55:39.330
She drew on her experience
as a businesswoman

00:55:39.330 --> 00:55:42.480
to raise money for the refugees' expenses,

00:55:42.480 --> 00:55:45.450
and using her understanding
of the Japanese government,

00:55:45.450 --> 00:55:48.300
Diana convinced officials
to grant the refugees

00:55:48.300 --> 00:55:51.561
temporary asylum on their way to America.

00:55:51.561 --> 00:55:52.590
(solemn music)

00:55:52.590 --> 00:55:54.180
- [Diana] I pray that Your Excellency

00:55:54.180 --> 00:55:55.530
will be graciously pleased

00:55:55.530 --> 00:55:58.800
to instruct the Japanese
Consul General at Vladivostok

00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:01.983
to give them and their families
permission to come to Japan.

00:56:03.510 --> 00:56:05.430
I hereby guarantee that

00:56:05.430 --> 00:56:08.790
if Liparit Hamberzoomian
and his wife Elizabeth

00:56:08.790 --> 00:56:12.092
need pecuniary assistance, or
if the Japanese authorities

00:56:12.092 --> 00:56:16.083
consider that they so
need, I will assist them.

00:56:18.120 --> 00:56:20.490
If they cause any loss to other people,

00:56:20.490 --> 00:56:22.113
I will be their surety.

00:56:23.430 --> 00:56:25.860
When Japanese authorities
consider it necessary

00:56:25.860 --> 00:56:27.690
for them to leave the country,

00:56:27.690 --> 00:56:30.093
their expenses will be incurred by me.

00:56:31.950 --> 00:56:34.620
Depreciation of the ruble
has reduced the money

00:56:34.620 --> 00:56:38.310
some of these refugees have
to such a ridiculous sum

00:56:38.310 --> 00:56:40.510
that they are not able
to pay their own way.

00:56:41.396 --> 00:56:46.396
16,320 yen will be the
expense of 68 passages

00:56:48.120 --> 00:56:52.590
that is 4,320 yen short,

00:56:52.590 --> 00:56:54.900
but if the Armenian
Committee is going to pay,

00:56:54.900 --> 00:56:58.800
then we will be able to send
50 by the Yokohama Maru,

00:56:58.800 --> 00:57:00.363
leaving May 30th.

00:57:01.836 --> 00:57:04.890
- [Narrator] More Armenians
found their way to Siberia,

00:57:04.890 --> 00:57:08.460
and then on to Japan, where
the intersection of cultures

00:57:08.460 --> 00:57:10.863
made for interesting juxtapositions.

00:57:14.310 --> 00:57:17.490
While Diana's name alone
was a lifeline for Armenians

00:57:17.490 --> 00:57:21.570
who had managed to reach Japan,
obstacles dogged her efforts

00:57:21.570 --> 00:57:23.473
to find the refugees a new home.

00:57:23.473 --> 00:57:25.110
(gentle music)

00:57:25.110 --> 00:57:28.530
- [Diana] In Tsuruga and
Yokohama, there will be no trouble

00:57:28.530 --> 00:57:30.600
if they mention my name
to the authorities,

00:57:30.600 --> 00:57:34.410
because the Japanese government
has given me permission.

00:57:34.410 --> 00:57:37.950
A very difficult trouble is
to find passage on these ships

00:57:37.950 --> 00:57:40.110
from March 'til October.

00:57:40.110 --> 00:57:41.220
The ships are full

00:57:41.220 --> 00:57:43.473
and the shipping companies
quite independent.

00:57:44.640 --> 00:57:48.093
The accommodation on these
OSK boats is very miserable.

00:57:49.320 --> 00:57:50.700
The US government has ordained

00:57:50.700 --> 00:57:54.063
very strict regulations
against alien immigration.

00:57:54.990 --> 00:57:58.020
The recent fire in
Yokohama had been a trouble

00:57:58.020 --> 00:58:00.780
because Miuraya's hotel was burned down,

00:58:00.780 --> 00:58:02.280
and I have had a hard time

00:58:02.280 --> 00:58:05.073
searching for accommodation
for the refugees.

00:58:05.970 --> 00:58:09.600
There are now about 60
or more Armenian refugees

00:58:09.600 --> 00:58:11.730
on the premises we were able to rent,

00:58:11.730 --> 00:58:15.420
besides five Assyrians and
also I took in three Greeks,

00:58:15.420 --> 00:58:19.358
so there is no room for
the second Armenian party.

00:58:19.358 --> 00:58:21.941
(somber music)

00:58:23.563 --> 00:58:28.146
(vocalist singing in foreign language)

00:58:50.497 --> 00:58:52.830
- [Narrator] "We learned
about the love and attention

00:58:52.830 --> 00:58:56.280
you have shown toward your
unfortunate compatriots,

00:58:56.280 --> 00:59:00.720
and of how you facilitate their
stay in that distant land.

00:59:00.720 --> 00:59:03.150
I appreciate you and wish God

00:59:03.150 --> 00:59:05.790
to strengthen you in your activities

00:59:05.790 --> 00:59:07.830
with love and consolation

00:59:07.830 --> 00:59:11.817
for our sisters and brothers
of our multi-tortured nation."

00:59:12.723 --> 00:59:14.730
- The Little Mother of a Nation.

00:59:14.730 --> 00:59:16.170
That was her nickname

00:59:16.170 --> 00:59:19.440
given by many Armenian
refugees who came down.

00:59:19.440 --> 00:59:23.167
There is this woman in
Yokohama who can help you.

00:59:23.167 --> 00:59:27.167
(Nakajima speaking in Japanese)

01:00:00.183 --> 01:00:05.016
(Nakajima continues speaking in Japanese)

01:00:27.334 --> 01:00:29.430
(gentle music)

01:00:29.430 --> 01:00:32.640
- [Narrator] Meanwhile, events
transpiring a continent away

01:00:32.640 --> 01:00:36.462
gave Diana new hope for
Armenians and Armenia.

01:00:36.462 --> 01:00:40.770
While the war still raged on,
the Bolshevik regime in Russia

01:00:40.770 --> 01:00:44.670
had withdrawn in order to
focus on its own revolution.

01:00:44.670 --> 01:00:47.430
A peace treaty with the
Central Powers cost Russia

01:00:47.430 --> 01:00:51.150
more than a million square
miles of its former empire

01:00:51.150 --> 01:00:55.260
and a third of its population,
and in the Caucasus,

01:00:55.260 --> 01:00:58.410
the Russian retreat
created a power vacuum.

01:00:58.410 --> 01:01:02.550
A tiny new nation, the
First Republic of Armenia,

01:01:02.550 --> 01:01:06.783
declared independence on May 28th, 1918.

01:01:08.910 --> 01:01:12.600
The First Republic of Armenia
was impoverished and weak

01:01:12.600 --> 01:01:15.180
and at war with the Ottoman Empire.

01:01:15.180 --> 01:01:18.095
It stood alone, occupied by Ottoman troops

01:01:18.095 --> 01:01:21.630
and overrun by tens of
thousands of refugees

01:01:21.630 --> 01:01:23.790
who had escaped the genocide.

01:01:23.790 --> 01:01:25.470
It was just a matter of time

01:01:25.470 --> 01:01:28.620
before this tenuous state dissolved.

01:01:28.620 --> 01:01:31.890
- By 1918, Ottoman Turkey
had lost World War I,

01:01:31.890 --> 01:01:34.020
and pretty much there
was a common sentiment,

01:01:34.020 --> 01:01:35.190
on the European part,

01:01:35.190 --> 01:01:37.620
that there should be
restitution for the Armenians

01:01:37.620 --> 01:01:39.570
for having suffered through a genocide.

01:01:41.250 --> 01:01:44.070
- [Narrator] On November 11th, 1918,

01:01:44.070 --> 01:01:49.070
Germany signed an armistice
and the Great War was over.

01:01:49.110 --> 01:01:51.990
Peace negotiations began in Versailles,

01:01:51.990 --> 01:01:54.720
but only the winning powers participated.

01:01:54.720 --> 01:01:58.500
Great Britain, France,
Italy, and the United States

01:01:58.500 --> 01:02:02.361
would reshape the world,
including the fate of Armenia.

01:02:02.361 --> 01:02:04.380
(gentle music)

01:02:04.380 --> 01:02:06.060
- [Diana] You doubtless
have read in the papers

01:02:06.060 --> 01:02:07.800
the news that the United States

01:02:07.800 --> 01:02:11.070
will become the guardian
of a free Armenia.

01:02:11.070 --> 01:02:14.730
I am at last seeing the
realization of my hopes,

01:02:14.730 --> 01:02:17.790
and I think I can say that
the whole Armenian nation

01:02:17.790 --> 01:02:21.333
has received this news with
great joy and thankfulness.

01:02:22.200 --> 01:02:26.412
At last, Armenians can
live on the soil of Armenia

01:02:26.412 --> 01:02:29.283
and enter into their own heritage.

01:02:30.540 --> 01:02:33.497
- For the survivors of
the Armenian genocide,

01:02:33.497 --> 01:02:36.270
the hope was always there

01:02:36.270 --> 01:02:40.110
that they would go back to
their hometowns and villages.

01:02:40.110 --> 01:02:42.359
They never gave up this hope.

01:02:42.359 --> 01:02:46.080
Many of them, in fact,
did not want to go too far

01:02:46.080 --> 01:02:48.270
specifically for this reason.

01:02:48.270 --> 01:02:50.310
They wanted to stay in the Middle East,

01:02:50.310 --> 01:02:54.120
because they hoped and believed
that, one day very soon,

01:02:54.120 --> 01:02:55.560
they were going to pack up

01:02:55.560 --> 01:02:58.323
and go back to their ancestral lands.

01:03:00.450 --> 01:03:03.150
- [Narrator] Diana Apcar
shared in these hopes.

01:03:03.150 --> 01:03:06.180
The initial treaties
drafted by the Allied Powers

01:03:06.180 --> 01:03:09.240
envisioned a larger independent Armenia,

01:03:09.240 --> 01:03:10.560
including territories

01:03:10.560 --> 01:03:14.253
Armenians had populated in
the former Ottoman Empire.

01:03:15.150 --> 01:03:17.246
The plan, Armenia would be

01:03:17.246 --> 01:03:20.340
a protectorate of the United States.

01:03:20.340 --> 01:03:24.060
Diana was a vocal supporter of
this vision for her homeland,

01:03:24.060 --> 01:03:26.583
which was called Wilsonian Armenia.

01:03:27.900 --> 01:03:29.550
- She argues that the Armenians

01:03:29.550 --> 01:03:33.240
have fought against the
Germans and the Ottomans,

01:03:33.240 --> 01:03:37.410
and deserve the attention,
the assistance of the West,

01:03:37.410 --> 01:03:40.800
because of that and not only
because they were victims.

01:03:40.800 --> 01:03:43.537
This post card, it's called,

01:03:43.537 --> 01:03:47.160
"A Summary of What the
Armenians Have Done in the War,"

01:03:47.160 --> 01:03:49.110
essentially makes the appeal

01:03:49.110 --> 01:03:51.390
not from a position of weakness.

01:03:51.390 --> 01:03:54.570
She doesn't say, "The Armenians suffered,

01:03:54.570 --> 01:03:56.340
and have been massacred and killed,

01:03:56.340 --> 01:03:57.717
and you have to help them."

01:03:59.910 --> 01:04:01.650
It comes from a position of strength.

01:04:01.650 --> 01:04:05.670
She says, "The Armenians
fought and won so many battles

01:04:05.670 --> 01:04:07.860
against the Ottomans and the Germans,

01:04:07.860 --> 01:04:09.840
and it's time now for the West

01:04:09.840 --> 01:04:14.130
to support and advocate
Armenia and Armenians."

01:04:14.130 --> 01:04:17.130
- The idea that the mandate
of the United States

01:04:17.130 --> 01:04:19.590
holding Armenia as a mandatory power

01:04:19.590 --> 01:04:20.730
would have changed history.

01:04:20.730 --> 01:04:23.550
I think it would have, because
what it would have meant

01:04:23.550 --> 01:04:25.350
would be that United States troops

01:04:25.350 --> 01:04:27.750
would have come to Armenia.

01:04:27.750 --> 01:04:31.980
Armenians actually were
repatriating between 1918 and 1920,

01:04:31.980 --> 01:04:33.180
so they were coming back,

01:04:33.180 --> 01:04:36.390
but Armenia was not
recognized either as a country

01:04:36.390 --> 01:04:38.948
until August of 1920.

01:04:38.948 --> 01:04:42.090
- [Narrator] Diana was so
optimistic about Armenia

01:04:42.090 --> 01:04:46.107
that she began to encourage
refugees to resettle there.

01:04:46.107 --> 01:04:48.420
- [Diana] 16 to 17 women and children

01:04:48.420 --> 01:04:50.760
are stranded at Vladivostok

01:04:50.760 --> 01:04:53.460
and are maintained by the Red Cross.

01:04:53.460 --> 01:04:56.400
In my opinion, not any of
these should go to America

01:04:56.400 --> 01:04:58.380
even if they were allowed to do so,

01:04:58.380 --> 01:05:01.500
because what will they
do when they get there?

01:05:01.500 --> 01:05:04.710
Armenia is the best place
for these poor people,

01:05:04.710 --> 01:05:06.750
for, somehow, they will
be able to make a living

01:05:06.750 --> 01:05:08.610
in their own country.

01:05:08.610 --> 01:05:11.118
I think these poor people going home

01:05:11.118 --> 01:05:13.053
will be well looked after.

01:05:14.580 --> 01:05:16.680
- [Narrator] To reach Armenia from Japan,

01:05:16.680 --> 01:05:19.863
one had to first sail to the
Egyptian city of Port Said.

01:05:21.300 --> 01:05:23.520
- [Diana] Some young men
have been writing to me

01:05:23.520 --> 01:05:26.073
and begging of me to
send them to Port Said.

01:05:27.660 --> 01:05:30.180
- I'm guessing that she
thought that the best way

01:05:30.180 --> 01:05:31.500
first would be to

01:05:31.500 --> 01:05:33.750
reunite these people
with their own families,

01:05:33.750 --> 01:05:35.130
because some of these refugees

01:05:35.130 --> 01:05:38.580
may have had some relatives
somewhere in Armenia,

01:05:38.580 --> 01:05:40.350
and, of course, to repopulate Armenia,

01:05:40.350 --> 01:05:43.740
to help Armenia receive back her children

01:05:43.740 --> 01:05:45.750
that were dispersed
because of the genocide,

01:05:45.750 --> 01:05:49.083
so they'd start their life
again in their own homeland,

01:05:50.070 --> 01:05:51.330
and it's very natural to me

01:05:51.330 --> 01:05:53.760
because of the love and trust
that she had for Armenia.

01:05:53.760 --> 01:05:55.380
As you know, she wrote what she called

01:05:55.380 --> 01:05:57.240
a prayer for Armenia,

01:05:57.240 --> 01:06:00.180
and asked all the priests
in Armenian churches

01:06:00.180 --> 01:06:02.585
to have people read this prayer

01:06:02.585 --> 01:06:05.370
before they set foot in the church,

01:06:05.370 --> 01:06:06.990
before the church service.

01:06:06.990 --> 01:06:11.883
That was the level of love
and admiration and devotion

01:06:11.883 --> 01:06:14.075
that she had towards her homeland.

01:06:14.075 --> 01:06:18.075
(Nakajima speaking in Japanese)

01:06:25.580 --> 01:06:30.080
(Artsvi speaking in foreign language)

01:06:31.957 --> 01:06:35.010
- [Diana] Let Armenia,
with heaven's grace,

01:06:35.010 --> 01:06:38.160
be fruitful and always safe.

01:06:38.160 --> 01:06:40.743
God, protect Armenia.

01:06:41.700 --> 01:06:43.825
- Diana Agabeg Apcar.

01:06:43.825 --> 01:06:47.825
(Nakajima speaking in Japanese)

01:06:49.673 --> 01:06:54.173
(Artsvi speaking in foreign language)

01:07:08.657 --> 01:07:10.800
(gentle music)

01:07:10.800 --> 01:07:12.480
- [Krikor] When we got to Yokohama,

01:07:12.480 --> 01:07:14.700
I went to meet Mrs. Apcar.

01:07:14.700 --> 01:07:17.820
Among other virtues, she
was a philanthropist.

01:07:17.820 --> 01:07:20.130
She was always ready
to lend a helping hand

01:07:20.130 --> 01:07:23.493
to those in need, and solved
many of their problems.

01:07:25.530 --> 01:07:29.250
- [Diana] You've been through
a lot, but it's over now.

01:07:29.250 --> 01:07:31.678
Armenians are repatriating.

01:07:31.678 --> 01:07:36.678
(gentle music)
(crowd chattering)

01:07:39.556 --> 01:07:42.352
(ominous music)

01:07:42.352 --> 01:07:47.352
(blades clattering)
(people screaming)

01:07:47.374 --> 01:07:50.190
(gentle music)

01:07:50.190 --> 01:07:53.520
- [Krikor] I always wanted to
go back to the United States.

01:07:53.520 --> 01:07:56.103
I believe I will be able to obtain a visa.

01:07:57.030 --> 01:07:58.770
- His goal was always to get to America,

01:07:58.770 --> 01:08:00.900
'cause he had been there once before,

01:08:00.900 --> 01:08:05.670
and, you know, I mean, when
you're in a situation like that,

01:08:05.670 --> 01:08:08.400
you're just thinking about
survival day in and day out,

01:08:08.400 --> 01:08:10.440
and going to a place where you can work

01:08:10.440 --> 01:08:12.180
and nobody will bother you.

01:08:12.180 --> 01:08:14.250
- [Diana] A visa will take some time.

01:08:14.250 --> 01:08:15.930
That means you will have to stay in Japan

01:08:15.930 --> 01:08:17.340
for several months.

01:08:17.340 --> 01:08:18.740
Let me see what can be done.

01:08:19.738 --> 01:08:23.190
Krikor will need work. He
is a skilled carpenter.

01:08:23.190 --> 01:08:24.210
Contact our friends

01:08:24.210 --> 01:08:26.343
and make a list of projects for him to do.

01:08:27.801 --> 01:08:32.801
(gentle music)
(hammer banging)

01:08:34.230 --> 01:08:36.908
- [Krikor] I have come to say goodbye.

01:08:36.908 --> 01:08:39.180
(Krikor speaks in foreign language)

01:08:39.180 --> 01:08:41.283
- [Diana] I wish you well, my friend.

01:08:42.704 --> 01:08:45.287
(somber music)

01:08:46.412 --> 01:08:48.390
- The first Republic, you see,

01:08:48.390 --> 01:08:50.790
is a very interesting period.

01:08:50.790 --> 01:08:52.680
A lot of Armenians think that

01:08:52.680 --> 01:08:57.467
it was the realization of
Armenian dreams, you know,

01:08:57.467 --> 01:09:00.030
to have finally an independent state.

01:09:00.030 --> 01:09:02.340
Well, the only problem is that,

01:09:02.340 --> 01:09:05.250
when Armenians had
proclaimed the Republic,

01:09:05.250 --> 01:09:07.440
the situation was a disaster.

01:09:07.440 --> 01:09:11.524
- Actually, in that first
year, between 1918 and 1919,

01:09:11.524 --> 01:09:14.430
over a third of Armenia's population died

01:09:14.430 --> 01:09:17.460
because of disease,
and hunger, starvation.

01:09:17.460 --> 01:09:20.523
There was literally no food,
because people couldn't farm.

01:09:21.660 --> 01:09:26.142
- Yerevan was a miserable, backward town.

01:09:26.142 --> 01:09:29.100
Armenia was literally devastated.

01:09:29.100 --> 01:09:31.410
The Ottoman armies had moved there.

01:09:31.410 --> 01:09:35.193
The refugee population, by
the hundreds of thousands.

01:09:36.090 --> 01:09:36.923
Famine.

01:09:38.160 --> 01:09:40.710
- Idealistically, you
wanted Armenians to go back,

01:09:40.710 --> 01:09:42.210
to rebuild that country,

01:09:42.210 --> 01:09:45.900
but without the infrastructure
there or the support,

01:09:45.900 --> 01:09:49.100
you're really sending
them back to their deaths.

01:09:49.100 --> 01:09:51.683
(solemn music)

01:09:59.580 --> 01:10:01.920
- [Krikor] In 1919, May 18th,

01:10:01.920 --> 01:10:05.433
I hailed the Golden Gate
and landed in San Francisco,

01:10:06.270 --> 01:10:10.050
from thence to Fresno, in my
nephew Toros Hampoyan's home,

01:10:10.050 --> 01:10:13.764
to start a fresh golden era
of reunion with my children,

01:10:13.764 --> 01:10:17.283
regretfully minus my
beloved wife, who had died.

01:10:18.344 --> 01:10:20.927
(upbeat music)

01:10:28.057 --> 01:10:30.807
(birds chirping)

01:10:32.517 --> 01:10:35.100
(gentle music)

01:10:45.090 --> 01:10:48.448
- [Narrator] The newspapers
actually had it wrong.

01:10:48.448 --> 01:10:52.440
Diana was not the world's
first female diplomat.

01:10:52.440 --> 01:10:55.860
Nonetheless, for years
prior to her appointment,

01:10:55.860 --> 01:10:59.820
Diana Apcar's work was that
of a de facto ambassador,

01:10:59.820 --> 01:11:02.865
saving the lives of her fellow Armenians.

01:11:02.865 --> 01:11:06.453
The impact of that work was
finally being recognized.

01:11:08.460 --> 01:11:11.400
- Armenians in Armenia knew about Diana.

01:11:11.400 --> 01:11:13.440
So, when the Republic was established

01:11:13.440 --> 01:11:15.720
and then independence came to Armenia,

01:11:15.720 --> 01:11:17.467
the letters that were sent to her said,

01:11:17.467 --> 01:11:20.580
"We are aware of your
humanitarian activities

01:11:20.580 --> 01:11:24.180
and we would like you to
represent us in Japan."

01:11:24.180 --> 01:11:27.320
And these were from Prime
Minister Hamo Ohanjanian

01:11:27.320 --> 01:11:30.810
of the Republic of Armenia,
and, of course, she accepted.

01:11:30.810 --> 01:11:34.680
- Her appointment as Consul General

01:11:34.680 --> 01:11:37.230
was very short actually, not very long,

01:11:37.230 --> 01:11:39.279
but what she was doing

01:11:39.279 --> 01:11:42.595
well before she was officially
appointed, actually,

01:11:42.595 --> 01:11:45.003
she was appointed because of her work.

01:11:49.205 --> 01:11:52.860
- [Narrator] Armenia's future
was debated for two years.

01:11:52.860 --> 01:11:55.050
The Allied powers had envisioned Armenia

01:11:55.050 --> 01:11:58.410
as an American protectorate,
but, in the end,

01:11:58.410 --> 01:12:01.590
the US Senate voted against the mandate,

01:12:01.590 --> 01:12:05.531
and Diana's dream of an
Armenian homeland was dead.

01:12:05.531 --> 01:12:10.531
(foreboding music)
(seagulls squawking)

01:12:36.563 --> 01:12:38.687
- [Diana] I have to stop those people!

01:12:40.410 --> 01:12:41.790
They are leaving for Armenia,

01:12:41.790 --> 01:12:44.193
but there is no more Armenia now.

01:12:46.320 --> 01:12:48.093
I should not have sent them there.

01:12:48.934 --> 01:12:51.851
(foreboding music)

01:12:53.580 --> 01:12:56.418
- Like I think every Armenian,

01:12:56.418 --> 01:13:01.418
Diana also believed in the
future of Armenia, her homeland.

01:13:01.560 --> 01:13:03.000
- [Diana] I have bitterly regretted

01:13:03.000 --> 01:13:06.090
that I sent Armenian refugees to Port Said

01:13:06.090 --> 01:13:08.850
for repatriation to Armenia.

01:13:08.850 --> 01:13:11.272
- [Ara] No one could imagine that

01:13:11.272 --> 01:13:14.790
the Soviet or Bolshevik
takeover would take place,

01:13:14.790 --> 01:13:17.490
the Republic would fall in 1920,

01:13:17.490 --> 01:13:19.770
and everything would be lost.

01:13:19.770 --> 01:13:23.283
- The Republic overall
was a miserable affair.

01:13:25.320 --> 01:13:26.687
On the other hand,

01:13:26.687 --> 01:13:31.687
it was a fundamental moment
in modern Armenian history,

01:13:31.817 --> 01:13:35.370
because had there not
been an Armenian republic

01:13:35.370 --> 01:13:39.513
in 1918 to '20, there would
not be an Armenia today.

01:13:40.350 --> 01:13:42.507
- After the collapse of the Republic,

01:13:42.507 --> 01:13:44.520
and Sovietization of the Republic,

01:13:44.520 --> 01:13:46.410
she continued her humanitarian work.

01:13:46.410 --> 01:13:48.300
Of course, not on a diplomatic level,

01:13:48.300 --> 01:13:50.070
but as a service to her people

01:13:50.070 --> 01:13:54.600
until she managed to help as
many refugees as she could

01:13:54.600 --> 01:13:56.694
to move to the United States.

01:13:56.694 --> 01:13:59.277
(somber music)

01:14:03.112 --> 01:14:05.612
(door creaks)

01:14:06.614 --> 01:14:09.447
(crowd murmuring)

01:14:26.253 --> 01:14:29.340
(glass dinging)

01:14:29.340 --> 01:14:31.505
- [Diana] My dear guests,

01:14:31.505 --> 01:14:35.550
I am so grateful to have
you here with me today.

01:14:35.550 --> 01:14:38.924
You gave me hope and you gave me purpose.

01:14:38.924 --> 01:14:42.172
Today, we meet to say goodbye to 1920

01:14:42.172 --> 01:14:45.963
and celebrate the new year of 1921.

01:14:49.500 --> 01:14:53.130
Things have been difficult,
and we've made mistakes,

01:14:53.130 --> 01:14:57.033
and often the limits of our
power were made all too obvious.

01:15:00.960 --> 01:15:03.330
Our hope for Armenia's independence

01:15:03.330 --> 01:15:05.673
is all but lost once again.

01:15:07.590 --> 01:15:08.553
Who is to blame?

01:15:10.230 --> 01:15:12.483
Will weaker nations ever have a voice?

01:15:13.494 --> 01:15:18.494
I will not live to see it,
but perhaps some of you will.

01:15:18.660 --> 01:15:19.493
You have gone through

01:15:19.493 --> 01:15:22.413
more than any human
being should experience.

01:15:23.490 --> 01:15:26.391
You have seen the worst of humanity.

01:15:26.391 --> 01:15:30.660
I wish the world will never
see such atrocities again,

01:15:30.660 --> 01:15:31.530
and I wish that,

01:15:31.530 --> 01:15:35.944
for all our suffering
and all our sacrifices,

01:15:35.944 --> 01:15:40.163
we will one day have a country again.

01:15:40.163 --> 01:15:42.417
- [Group] Amen.

01:15:42.417 --> 01:15:47.417
(uplifting music)
(clock ticking)

01:15:57.935 --> 01:16:01.260
- [Krikor] This wonderful
woman used to work miracles,

01:16:01.260 --> 01:16:04.470
helping poor strangers
in difficult situations,

01:16:04.470 --> 01:16:07.530
especially when women and
children were involved.

01:16:07.530 --> 01:16:10.170
She was a woman of faith and prayer

01:16:10.170 --> 01:16:12.540
and a woman of positive action.

01:16:12.540 --> 01:16:16.380
She spent all her worldly
possessions on the poor.

01:16:16.380 --> 01:16:18.090
- She's like a fable.

01:16:18.090 --> 01:16:21.810
Diana Apcar helped my
great-grandfather, Krikor.

01:16:21.810 --> 01:16:23.370
I mean, we're here today.

01:16:23.370 --> 01:16:25.710
Our family has done well for itself,

01:16:25.710 --> 01:16:27.780
just like many Armenian families

01:16:27.780 --> 01:16:30.000
who survived the Armenian genocide

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:33.750
and started lives again
halfway across the world.

01:16:33.750 --> 01:16:35.768
You know, it's amazing.

01:16:35.768 --> 01:16:40.020
- She was already acting
as a true ambassador.

01:16:40.020 --> 01:16:42.900
Her entire work, entire life, actually,

01:16:42.900 --> 01:16:46.080
before her appointment
and after her appointment,

01:16:46.080 --> 01:16:50.910
was a true diplomat and true humanitarian.

01:16:50.910 --> 01:16:53.060
- There is a lot we
don't know about Diana.

01:16:54.756 --> 01:16:58.110
What we know, I think, is
the tip of the iceberg.

01:16:58.110 --> 01:17:02.340
The extent of her contribution
to the Armenian people

01:17:02.340 --> 01:17:05.153
is not fully known and appreciated.

01:17:05.153 --> 01:17:08.236
(gentle piano music)

01:17:40.036 --> 01:17:43.953
(gentle piano music continues)

01:18:20.017 --> 01:18:23.934
(gentle piano music continues)

01:18:40.036 --> 01:18:43.953
(gentle piano music continues)