GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Ron Oba, front, Takamori Miyagi and Earl Nishioka attended a private screening of the World War II movie "Only the Brave" yesterday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Oba was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Miyagi was a member of the 100th Battalion. Nishioka, a member of the Hawaii Historic Arms Association, wore a style of uniform that Oba and Miyagi wore in World War II.

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Movie honors
legacy of 442nd

"Only the Brave" is praised by vets
for its Asian-American focus

Some came aided by canes. Others had to lean on the shoulders of their children.

Lane Nishikawa: Worked on a film about the 442nd in various forms over 2 decades

They came to see the first Hollywood movie in 53 years about the exploits of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

An earlier movie of the 100th and 442nd -- composed mainly of second-generation Japanese Americans -- was told from a Caucasian point of view.

This time, the movie -- "Only the Brave" -- is seen through the eyes of Japanese Americans who volunteered from the plantations of Hawaii and from behind barbed wire fences surrounding mainland internment camps to fight in Europe to prove their loyalty.

It is a story that filmmaker Lane Nishikawa, who was born in Wahiawa but who has spent most of his adult life in California, has been working on in various forms for the past two decades.

Nishikawa focuses on the pivotal battle in October 1944 when members of the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team were sent to rescue the 141st Regiment from Texas, which was pinned down by two German regiments manned by 7,000 soldiers.

After three days of fighting, the nisei, or second-generation Japanese-American soldiers, rescued 211 members of what has since been called the "Lost Battalion." More than 800 nisei soldiers were killed or injured.

Ed Goto, president of the 442nd Veterans Club, said he was glad to finally see a feature film that tells his father's story from the viewpoint of the nisei soldier.

"The last one -- 'Go for Broke' -- came out in 1951 and starred Van Johnson. It's about time that the follow-up movie on the 442nd is portrayed by AJAs (Americans of Japanese Ancestry).

"It's a good way to get the story out and educate people."

Dr. Denis Teraoka, president of Club 100, noted that Asian-American actors who portrayed the nisei soldiers were "big and brawny while we were small and scrawny."

He believes "there will be an audience for it and the movie will help to keep our legacy alive."

Among the 600 people who attended the private screening at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall were many veterans of the 442nd RCT and the 100th Battalion, who gave the movie high marks on its emotional appeal.

Roy Nosaka, 88, was one of the original members of the 100th Battalion and was drafted into the Army on Sept. 10, 1940.

Nosaka said Nishikawa's movie was "very good. I never believed any producer would make one using our viewpoint. That makes me very grateful. To produce something like this takes a lot of guts and I appreciate it very much."

Janice Yokoyama-Tribbitt, whose uncle, Sadao Munemori, was the 442nd RCT's first Medal of Honor recipient, said she was touched by scenes showing what happened to some of the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were uprooted from their homes on the West Coast and sent to internment camps in the desert.

"My mother's family was at Manzanar," she said. "Those scenes of life at the camps were so touching."

Although Barney Hajiro liked Nishikawa's movie, he said it is hard to replicate the intense fighting that took place in France's Vosges forests.

"It is so different," said Hajiro, 88, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bayonet charge during the 'Lost Battalion' rescue. "So many people died on that battlefield."

But Hajiro added: "It's good to have a movie like this. The American people should know that Japanese Americans fought for America in World War II. So many people have forgotten about that. It's good to re-tell the story of the 442nd."

Mark Dacascos, who portrays a sergeant, said that although he was raised in Hawaii, he really didn't know about the exploits of the 442nd RCT until he was in Washington, D.C., 15 years ago and took in an exhibit at the Smithsonian that explained their contributions.

He said he approached Nishikawa and asked for a part since he wanted "to show future generations what these men did for us."

Actress Tamlyn Tomita ("Karate Kid Part 2," "Picture Bride") said she liked her role of Mary Takata, who has to handle the home front while her husband, portrayed by Nishikawa, is away at war.

She said her role is a tribute to mothers, wives, sisters and other women who have an equally tough role in war time.

Yesterday's screening was also attended by 20 members from the family support group of the Army Reserve unit -- the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry -- which will be sent to Iraq next month for a year of combat duty.

"We are here to support the film," said Irlene Torres, "and the soldiers who came before."