Documentary Tells the Kazuo Yamane Story

Kazuo Yamane at Camp Savage in Minnesota in 1943.

“Proof of Loyalty” will be screened on Saturday, March 31, at 2 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave. in Little Tokyo.

Hawaii did not experience the mass incarcerations that Japanese Americans on the West Coast did following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Only a small percentage of the islands’ Japanese Americans were sent to camps, and large numbers of Nisei volunteered for and served with distinction in the U.S. Army.

This 2017 documentary tells the compelling story of one of those soldiers, Kazuo Yamane. Educated as a child in Hawaii and eventually graduating from Japan’s prestigious Waseda University, he was drafted into the U.S. Army just before Pearl Harbor. With his strong Japanese language skills, he was plucked from the infantry ranks to serve first at the Pentagon, then at a secret facility in Maryland, and finally under Gen. Dwight Eisenhower in Europe.

Most importantly, he identified a secret document that significantly helped America’s war in the Pacific.

Q&A with Lucy Ostrander, one of the two directors of the film, will follow the screening.

Presented with Go For Broke National Education Center (GFBNEC). Free for JANM and GFBNEC members and included with admission to JANM or GFBNEC. RSVPs are recommended. Info: (213) 625-0414 or www.janm.org.