Documentary | DVD
Writer: Terri DeBono
Producers: Terri DeBono, Yuko Sumida, Sherry Lapham Thomas, Charles Richard Woodson
Director/Camera/Editor: Steve Rosen
Ethnicity: Japanese
Subjects: History, Japanese American/Canadian Internment, War
Grade Levels: High school & up
This exceptional documentary outlines the World War II battlefield accomplishments of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, featuring stories recounted by Japanese Americans who fought in these segregated units to prove their loyalty to their country. The ironies are not lost as the revelations unfold. As their civil liberties and rights were being stripped away and their families imprisoned in internment camps in the U.S., they faced further prejudice from the upper ranks of the military, in the trenches of Europe and in the Pacific theater. Personal accounts begin with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, continue through Italy and France, building to the rescue of the Texas “Lost Battalion” in northern France. Also included are the recollections of the little known MIS (Military Intelligence Service) linguists who served in the Pacific interrogating POWs, intercepting radio messages and translating documents.
Now available on DVD with bonus features including the full length film “Go for Broke” (1951) and film archives from the U.S. government’s War Relocation Authority.