FILM 'HONOR WITH VALOR' FEATURING JA VETERAN INTERVIEWS SET FOR FEB. 5

A film screening of the documentary, "Honor with Valor", featuring excerpts of interviews of 35 Japanese American World War II veterans, will be held at the Japanese American National Museum on Saturday, Feb. 5, beginning at 2 p.m.

Filmmaker Burt Takeuchi assembled the documentary and unlike previous films about the remarkable exploits of the segregated 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, "Honor with Valor" has no narrator and no overview. Rather, the film allows the veterans themselves to tell their own stories.

The combined 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd R.C.T. is the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces. It received eight Presidential Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor and over 9,000 Purple Hearts. Among its feats was the rescue of the Texas 141st Infantry Division, known as the "Lost Battalion".

Takeuchi, a Los Angeles-born Sansei, became interested in the 100th/442nd because one of his neighbors was a 442nd veteran. A graduate of San Jose State University, Takeuchi became concerned as the veterans of this fabled fighting unit began to pass away. Despite a lack of filmmaking experience, Takeuchi took it upon himself to contact some of the veterans with hopes that they would agree to be interviewed on camera. For the 35 that agreed, Takeuchi allowed them plenty of time to speak about their experiences.

"Since I had so much footage," explained Burt, "I wanted to show as much as possible and decided to not use a narrator to carry the story. This was risky since I could lose the audience without careful editing. I wanted to show the stories the way I heard them: raw, gritty, and not polished. War is horrible and I didn’t want to gloss over that aspect of the interviews."

It took three years for Takeuchi to film and edit his documentary. For the last two years, Takeuchi has taken his film to community screenings, especially where the veterans and their families live. He noted that the response has been overwhelmingly positive. "I wanted to show the Nisei vets in a light that few have seen before. You hear about their accomplishments on the battlefield but not how they felt about their personal experiences," wrote Burt. "It’s also a tribute to our vets who were willing to sacrifice their lives to a country that turned its back on them."

The screening to free for National Museum members or with admission.