The new film “Nisei,” an Oscar-qualified film directed by Darren Haruro Rae, a San José State alumni, brings forth the history of Japanese-Americans who fought in World War II.
Rae said he was able to bring parts of his grandfather's diaries to life who served in The 442nd Regimental Combat Team in WWII.
The Combat Team was a segregated Japanese military unit that served in World War II, according to the website for the National WWII Museum.
The unit is considered the most decorated military unit in America with 4,000 Purple Hearts, according to a webpage for the Go For Broke National Education Center. The unit was composed mostly of Nisei or second-generation Japanese-Americans.
“I knew my grandfather in his twilight years,” Rae said. “Having to almost reimagine what it was like for him being an 18 or 19-years-old (boy) was something I don’t think I ever fully thought about when he was alive.”
Rae said that putting himself in his grandfather’s shoes was tough, but also rewarding.
Nisei shows audiences the perspective of two brothers serving in The 442nd Combat Team in WWII, according to the webpage of Roann Films.
The idea of directing the film began with a conversation over the Thanksgiving break in 2021 between Nick Martinez, SJSU’s Spartan Film Studios manager and producer.
Spartan Film Studios is a program that combines SJSU’s theater arts and radio-television program, and allows students to work on films, according to the SJSU website.
“We were hanging out for Thanksgiving and I was just talking to him (and said), ‘I think our (summer) film program is dead,’ ” Martinez said.
Martinez said Spartan Film Studios has been offering a summer class since 2007 where students worked on a big film project like “Nisei.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, the studio was affected by COVID-19 precautions and saw a halt in its operations, according to a 2023 article on the SJSU NewsCenter.
Martinez said he, Executive Producer Barnaby Dallas and SJSU’s theater program took on this film project in hopes of revamping the course.
“We wanted something that would reconnect the current students with the students who have been gone, to build a bridge between the past and the present,” Dallas said.
Dallas said the movie’s pre-production included six months of finding locations and developing scripts, a month and a half of preparation and six days of filming.
He said the crew started filming on set once summer began and utilized various locations such as the barracks located at the Japanese American Museum of San José, built sets and traveled to Santa Rosa.
“We started putting locations together and at the same time we also love to build a set,” Dallas said.
Martinez said the studio’s group had to work with the budget they had and carefully made decisions to ensure they would stay within that budget.
“He was like, ‘Yeah you can have those (guns) but that’s $2,000 a day,’ ” Martinez said. “I go, ‘Well we can’t use that gun then we gotta use these other ones’ which are historically accurate.”
Martinez said the costs to make the film weren’t the only things adding up and that filming took up to 12 hours a day.
“It’s 12 hours on your feet (and a) one hour lunch,” Martinez said. “You’re shooting in cramped conditions, weather, heat, all that and then you wake up and do it again.”
Radio, television and film senior Kyle Dimick worked as a sound utility on the film set.
“I emailed Nick (studio manager and producer) saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have the money to pay for this class, but I want to be on your set,’ ” Dimick said. “He emailed me ‘Show up.’ Those are the two words he emailed me.”
Martinez said that generally labor on a film set consisted of blue-collar work.
He said certain choices also didn’t have anything to do with cost and rather paying homage to Rae’s grandfather.
Martinez said a patch on one of the actor’s uniforms was one of Rae’s grandfather's original patches. He said even though it wasn’t historically accurate it was important for him to include it in the film.
“Those (patches) weren’t created until two years (later),” Martinez said. “But (Rae) was like ‘Nope, I’m getting this patch in the film because this is what they represent.’ ”
Rae said this particular film is not a documentary but rather a narrative piece that represents his grandfather and family.
While Asian representation in film has increased in 2022 since a study shows that only 16% of the top 100 films on streaming platforms have Asian characters according to a 2023 article by Variety.
Yvonne Kwan, SJSU Asian-American Studies assistant professor, said movies like “Nisei” connect the older generation with this part of Japanese-American history and plant the seed for the younger generation to learn more.
“I think it’s important for everyone, but especially the older generations it means much more because they grew up in a time where they didn’t see themselves on screen,” Kwan said.
During 1942 and 1945, Japanese and Japanese Americans were subjected to forced incarceration in internment camps by Executive Order 9066, according to the National Archives.
Kwan said people were either drafted into the 442 Combat Team or chose to serve in World War II.
Rae said he hopes to turn this film into a longer film or a TV show to share more about his grandfather and his history.
“It’s continuing (the film), developing it and turning it into a longer format,” Rae said.
Dimick said he learned about filmmaking, forged new relationships and became immersed in the experience.
“Now when I think about ‘Nisei’ I think about this: using the word ‘yet’ at the end of your sentences and being like ‘I don’t know how to do this yet,’ ” Dimick said.
Martinez said film students need to have hands-on experience because it helps them as they pursue their future careers.
He said without that experience students wouldn’t be able to decide whether or not the film industry is the right career path for them.
Martinez said he remembers seeing how relieved the cast and crew were on the final day of shooting the film.
“To know that this was going to be the final shot (and time to) set up and to look over and see Darren,” Martinez said. “There’s just this moment where you can see the relief in his eyes.”
Rae said his parents were involved in the entire filmmaking process and his father even played one of the characters.
He said he remembered feeling touched when first hearing the film’s orchestral piece from composer Yuichiro "Sixtwo" Oku.
“I got very emotional and teary-eyed because I thought, ‘My grandfather has a theme song,’ ” Rae said.
