Yes, it will be about the Nisei 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team. In the "Any Info?" discussion thread, there are links to newspaper articles on the upcoming film.
Being from Texas, you may be familiar with what will likely be the main part of the film -- the 100th/442nd's rescue of the "Lost Battalion" (the 141st Regiment of the Texan 36th Infantry Division) in the Vosges Forest in France. In the "Institute of Texas Cultures" (built when San Antonio hosted the World Fair), the "Japanese" exhibit includes a display on this costly battle. Fortunately, my father (an original member of the 442nd) survived thru all of their campaigns thru Italy and France.
You're right, there have been few WWII films featuring American minorities ("Tuskeegee Airmen", "Windtalkers", and "Go for Broke!" come to mind). But then, the U.S. military was segregated thru WWII, and Hollywood hasn't developed many "bankable" minority movie stars (nor TV actors, for that matter).
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aier
19 years ago
oh, so that is what this is about! I haven't heard anything about this (except poking around finding what other movies actors I like are in) and I was wanting to know what this was about. Pretty cool they are making this movie! If it comes out in theatres, I will have a better chance of seeing it. I don't rent alot of movies, so movie theatres are my best option.
Yeah, alot of movies don't show other people's sides of the war. Weren't there Native Americans whose language was used as a sort of code. It would be interesting to see this movie, how they portrayed this view point. Promises to be interesting.
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jquark
19 years ago
The most significant use of a Native American language for battlefield code during WWII was the "Navajo code talkers" of the U.S. Marine Corps -- which most people were unaware of until the big-budget Hollywood film "Windtalkers" (2002).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245562/
The best documentary on the Navajo code talkers is an hour-long program that re-runs on the History Channel/Discovery Channel. It includes interviews with some of the surviving veterans and their descendants.
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