Community Stories episodes
Shiro Kashino, a World War II veteran who grew up in Seattle's Central District, is the subject of this animated short film drawn from the graphic novel "Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers," written by Lawrence Matsuda and illustrated by Matt Sasaki. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kashino and his family were incarcerated at the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho. From there, Kashino volunteered to join the U.S Army as part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Infantry Battalion, a segregated unit of Japanese-American soldiers. Kashino was a highly decorated war hero who survived suicide missions, but was stripped of his rank of sergeant after stepping in to break up a tavern fight while in France.
The piece was produced and directed by Shannon Gee, animated by Randy Eng, with audio engineering and sound design by Stephen Thomas Cavit, and writing by Lawrence Matsuda. The film was produced in partnership with the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience and the Seattle Nisei Veterans Committee Foundation. Winner of a Northwest Regional Emmy Award for historic/cultural programming.
Transcript of this video available here.
