Legacy of the Nisei Veterans: WWII Stories of the 100th/442nd and Military Intelligence Service (film)

Documentary film made up of interviews with ten Nisei World War II veterans from the San Francisco Bay area. Short segments of the interviews are organized by topic in more or less chronological fashion, with the occasional insertion of still photographs from the period. Segments include the reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the arrest of Issei leaders, Executive Order 9066 and its aftermath, early recruits to the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the formation of the 442nd and the loyalty questionnaire episode of early 1943, the battlefield experiences of the MIS in the Pacific and the 442nd in Europe, and the role of the MIS in occupation Japan. The film ends with a brief summary of each man's life after the war. One unusual element in the inclusion of Takeshi "Gish" Endo's story of being recruited out of Heart Mountain by the British Political Warfare Mission, and doing translation and Japanese broadcasting work out of Denver.

A project of the San Leandro Public Library, Legacy of the Nisei Veterans was funded by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , with support services provided by the Media Arts Center San Diego. The library followed this up with a second similar video titled Legacy of the Nisei: Stories of Japanese American Internment and World War II Veterans .

Might also like The Color of Honor: The Japanese American Soldier in WWII (1987); 442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity (2010); Looking Like the Enemy (1996)