‘442’ explores hardships of Japanese American WWII veterans1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteJunichi Suzuki, director of documentary film “442, interviewed 50 former members of the 442nd about the discrimination they suffered and their experiences on the battlefield.
The veterans revealed things on camera that they hadn’t even told their families.
442 – Live with Honor, Live with Dignity trailer (English with Japanese subtitles)
Suzuki originally had little interest in World War II as the subject for a film. It was when he realized that so few in Japan knew about the Japanese American soldiers who had cut out a place for themselves in the world despite the various challenges they faced, that he made the decision to put the former soldiers’ stories on screen.
“I’m sure (the Japanese American soldiers) experienced a lot of internal conflict,” Suzuki says. “But they could not have survived otherwise.” It makes us question the meaning of “nation” from the perspective of “individuals.”
