A good war story is always a difficult one to tell, as the carnage of war can be incredibly hard to watch. This film is no different, but also tells a story that is very personal. Especially for writer/director Darren Haruo Rae. Based on stories from his grandfather, Nisei tells the story of two Japanese-American brothers as they opt to fight for the United States in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which consisted of volunteers from among the 120,000 Japanese-Americans that were forced into internment camps for fears that, as people of Japanese descent, they would betray the country in favor of the Axis powers.
This is how John and Minoru Miyasaki find themselves in Italy, fighting as Nisei, or 2nd generation Japanese-Americans. And fight they did, as, despite the United States giving them little reason to, this group of soldiers gave everything, earning the name “The Purple Heart Battalion”, a nickname that was bestowed upon them as they became the most decorated unit for their size and length of service in the history of the United States military.
This is a hard film to watch, not only for the obvious death and destruction that is seen during war, but because of those who are seeing the consequences. No one truly wins in war, but these brave volunteers suffered two-fold, but did so proudly and with honor. This is displayed in every frame of this film, as the reverence shown by Rae is obvious throughout the piece. That may be because one of the film’s subjects, Minoru Miyasaki, is Rae’s grandfather, whose diaries inspired and helped shape the film.
Rae does a brilliant job displaying a forgotten piece of history, one that largely goes unmentioned despite World War II being of the most documented events in all of history. In doing so, it helps to show the horrors of war, the mistakes of American paranoia in the face of a threat from abroad, and the desperation to belong by the soldiers that put their lives on the line to show their love and loyalty for their country, even when their country was so afraid that it locked up their loved ones.
Playing Rae’s grandfather is Jonathan Tanigaki, whose performance as Minoru is heartbreaking, excellent and powerful. Joining him are Brent Yoshida, who plays the role of John, Shiro Kawai as their father Jinkichi, along with several other brilliant actors who rounded out the regiment in the film, including Jabez Armodia, Jason Jia and Alfred Hsing.
Without going too much into how the plot plays out, it’s safe to say that all of the success this film as seen on the independent festival circuit is well-deserved. It’s an incredible film, one that zooms on a small, but very important part of World War II. It’s a triumph of story-telling for Rae, who pulls off the difficult task of telling a powerful family story inside a brutal tale of war and forced internment. The entire cast and crew should be very proud of this film, a it was a challenging but very worthwhile watch.
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