Honor & Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story

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 internment camps during World War II. Born to immigrant parents in Los Angeles in 1913, Matsumoto was raised in L.A. and moved with his family to Hiroshima for the latter part of his education. Matsumoto returned to the U.S., where he worked until Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in his detention at a facility in Arkansas. Here, Matsumoto volunteered to become a linguist for the Military Intelligence Service and joined Merrill's Marauders, the now-celebrated, secretive band of volunteers who disrupted Japan's activities in Burma. Enduring much hardship, Matsumoto became a hero when he tapped into enemy communications and learned of an imminent attack that would have killed his fellow Marauders. 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. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)