Beyond Barbed Wire (1997)
World War II documentary narrated by Pat Morita
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Brilliant and touching
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
This a great documentary featuring Japanese-Americans who served the American military in WWII from different walks of life (Hawaiians who were already serving, mainlanders whose families were in relocation camps while they served, and MIS) who recount both military experiences in general and experiences (both positive and negative) specific to being Japanese-Americans serving after Pearl Harbor. I think what is particularly interesting and touching about this documentary is how they get these guys to open up and talk about something that they haven't talked about before; they have footage of more than one guy recounting things and their closest family members (wives, daughters) saying how they never heard them talk about these things before, and when I showed it to one of my friends she was surprised to see her grandfather featured (and said she had never heard him talk about the things he talked about either). I have lent my DVD to so many friends that now I've lost track of it and need to buy a new one.