Honor and Sacrifice A Japanese-American War Hero's Family During WWII
Honor and Sacrifice tells the complex story of a Japanese immigrant family ripped apart by WWII. The Matsumoto family included five sons; two who fought for the Americans and three who fought for the Japanese. The eldest, Hiroshi (Roy), became a hero, fighting against the Japanese with Merrill's Marauders, an American guerrilla unit in Burma. He was born near Los Angeles, educated in Japan, and became a hero when he used his Japanese language skills and military training to save his surrounded, starving battalion deep in the Burmese jungle. At the same time his parents and sisters were living in their family's ancestral home, Hiroshima. The story is told by Roy's daughter Karen as she discovers her father's work in military intelligence, kept secret for 50 years.
Winner of the 2014 Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians
Winner of the 2014 History In Progress Award from the American Association for State and Local History
"Filmmakers Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers' powerful documentary tells the story of Roy Matsumoto, one of many Japanese Americans who enlisted in the U.S. military while detained in Japanese Internment during World War II....Decorated for heroism, Matsumoto was eventually sent to postwar Japan, where he found relatives still alive in Hiroshima despite the nuclear bomb attack that had devastated the city. Interweaving archival footage and family photographs to illustrate this compelling story, along with an interview of the elderly Matsumoto, Honor & Sacrifice underscores the many internal conflicts and ironies experienced by Japanese-American enlistees, from having to prove their loyalty while confined within the U.S. to fighting an enemy that often (as in Matsumoto's case) literally included one's brothers from the old country. Highly recommended." -T. Keogh 3.5 Stars - Video Librarian
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Comments (4)
Great historic events presented for all to see and discuss.
Roy's story of courage and survival is quite remarkable, and clearly and succinctly depicted in this film. A must see for classes examining WWII in the Pacific or Japanese-Americans.
Moving and thought-provoking. Thank you for this important work and preserving a legacy.
We often uncovered secrets when making films, but the revelations in this documentary astonished us. We intended to tell the story of an unlikely hero, but the production became a discovery of the suppressed struggles of three generations of a Japanese-American family from Hiroshima divided ...Read more
We often uncovered secrets when making films, but the revelations in this documentary astonished us. We intended to tell the story of an unlikely hero, but the production became a discovery of the suppressed struggles of three generations of a Japanese-American family from Hiroshima divided by World War II. Their journey is an embodiment of the immigrant experience, ultimately revealing the extraordinary strength that America gains from its diversity.
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