The United States is far from perfect, and it has made severe mistakes for a relatively new and upstart country. Darren Haruo Rae’s short film, Nisei, is one such story of heroism born from American fear and racism.
Nisei is the story of brothers Minoru (Jonathan Tanigaki) and John (Brent Yoshida) Miasaki on a bus in California in 1944, awaiting deployment in the European theater of World War II. The pair are on their way to visit their father, Jinkichi (Shiro Kawai), who lives at an American internment camp where the government forcibly relocated Japanese-Americans during the height of the war. John refuses to see his father, knowing how he feels about his son enlisting in the U.S. Army.
We later cut to Italy, where John and Minoru have joined the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, preparing to clear a small town before being ambushed by the Italian army.
“…the brothers and their families were unjustly labeled as national threats and stripped of their citizenship.”
Nisei is a story of conundrums and contradictions. John and Minoru are Nisei—second-generation Japanese-Americans. America has always been their home country, but the brothers and their families were unjustly labeled as national threats and stripped of their citizenship. As soldiers, they are seen by the average American as potential spies.
On the other hand, John and Minoru’s father sees their enlistment in the U.S. Military as becoming traitors against their family. Jinkichi repeatedly states that “America is not my home.”
Filmmaker Haruo Rae sets these contradictions against one another and shows the Miyasaki brothers in acts of heroism as part of the “Purple Heart Battalion”—the most decorated unit of its size and length of service fighting valiantly against the Axis powers.
As a film, Nisei is not exactly Saving Private Ryan, but considering its budget and safety concerns with bullets and explosions, it manages to create an exceptional indie war film. Clearly, military stories are no longer the property of the big Hollywood studios.
For more information about Nisei, visit the Roann Films website.