New Documentary Spotlights Nisei Veterans
Unbroken Honor Captures Experiences of Americans of Japanese Ancestry During World War II
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Episode #774 of Hometown Heroes, airing February 25 – March 2, 2023, spotlights the new documentary film, Unbroken Honor, which chronicles the experiences of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II, including the Nisei veterans who served with the Military Intelligence Service and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Valley PBS hosted a special premiere screening of Unbroken Honor in Fresno, CA. (photo by Matt Drake, Valley PBS)
You’ll hear clips from the film, added perspective from filmmaker Jeff Aiello, and memories from a veteran featured prominently in Unbroken Honor, Lawson Sakai. Sakai, a veteran of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team who passed away in 2020 at the age of 97, shared his story in a two-episode conversation with Hometown Heroes in 2016. Lawson was wounded during that “Go For Broke” unit’s most legendary effort, the “Rescue of the Lost Battalion” in France’s Vosges Mountains in 1944. The production crew behind Unbroken Honor traveled back to that location to capture footage of that moss-covered forest nearly eight decades after a group of mostly Caucasian soldiers from the 36th Infantry Division were surrounded there by German forces. Lawson Sakai would become one of more than 800 casualties suffered by the 442nd in the process of saving the lost battalion. At a special premiere screening of Unbroken Honor in Fresno, CA, two other veterans we’ve met on Hometown Heroes were present as honored guests: Clarence Suzuki and Robert Uyesaka. Suzuki, a native Hawaiian, had been in Honolulu the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Military Intelligence Service veteran Clarence Suzuki at the Unbroken Honor premiere. (photo by Matt Drake)
He later served in the Military Intelligence Service, and shared his story with Hometown Heroes on episode #201 in 2012. Uyesaka experienced life behind barbed wire in an internment camp before serving in the 442nd. He related his memories on Hometown Heroes on episode #563 in 2019. While Suzuki and Uyesaka were not featured in the documentary, they were introduced to the crowd at the premiere as living links to the history the film aims to communicate to future generations.
The entire film can be viewed below, thanks to the Valley PBS channel on YouTube:
