Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawaii (film)

Documentary film on a Nisei war hero from Hawai'i who served with the Military Intelligence Service during World War II.

Proof of Loyalty tells the story of Nisei soldiers in Hawai'i through the varied experiences of Kazuo Yamane (1916–2010). The son of a successful Issei businessman, Yamane was the 8th of 12 children. After graduating from McKinley High School in 1934, his father, like many other well-off Issei, sent Kazuo to Japan for further schooling where he attended Waseda University. As the tides of war in Japan rose, he returned to the U.S. in 1941 and was promptly drafted, becoming part of the 298th Infantry . After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was dispatched to guard the beach on the Windward side of O'ahu. Later, he was one of the 1,432 Nisei shipped to the continent who would become the 100th Infantry Battalion . But when Military Intelligence Service Language School recruiters came, he was among those selected given his unusual facility with the Japanese language due to his years in Japan. He would eventually be assigned to the Pentagon, to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, and to Europe, where his translation skills were of great value. Yamane's story is juxtaposed with the larger story of Nisei in the 100th, 442nd Regimental Combat Team , and Military Intelligence Service and how they changed Hawaii upon their return after the war.

Filmmakers Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers use conventional documentary techniques to tell the story, including use of archival footage and photographs and interviews with historians and one Nisei veteran, and Ostrander's narration. Much of Yamane's story is told in first person voice, as played by actor Steve Sumida.

Might also like Honor & Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story (2013); Mission in Manila: The Sakakida Story (1994); MIS: Human Secret Weapon (2012)