Nisei

I stumbled on this 21-minute short on YouTube and found it quite moving. Directed by Darren Haruo Rae, this 2023 featurette places focus on the legendary 442nd Infantry Regiment through the lens of two brothers whose family is interred in the Tule Lake concentration camp. The brothers are close but at odds in recognizing the discriminatory way they are viewed as patriots. While executed economically, this short has a surprising visual richness thanks to Connor Bodell's burnished cinematography. Jonathan Tanigaki plays the more open hearted brother Minoru, while Brent Yoshida exhibits the expected bravado of someone subject to constant racism as John. Precious little has been recreated of this heroic batallion made up primarily of second-generation Japanese-Americans. 1951's stereotypical "Go for Broke!" is the only movie that covers their sacrifices in detail. That lapse makes this a worthwhile short to see.