Hey, we're running out of sun.
- Come on, let's play. - Let me finish.
Oh, hi Skip.
Oh, that's a good one, son.
- You even got the robin's nest. - Thanks, ma.
- Where is dad? - Uhm, working late I suppose.
And now a news update.
Yesterday Japan continued its attack along Mount Samat.
The US Philippine divisions suffered heavy losses.
- Oh my God. - God.
Sorry I'm late sweetheart.
How can we afford a new car?
The bank's just credited us a loan for two new stores.
- It's called franchising. - I thought they said no.
I went to the old backup plan.
The backup plan being "don't give up"?
- Never fails. - This is a Packard!
Yup, gonna drive you to art classes in style.
Hey,
what do we have here?
Some fat heads at school.
Blamed me for Pearl Harbor.
We're as American as those boys.
Did you sack 'em back?
- I thought fighting was bad. - It is.
But standing up for yourself is another thing, son.
Don't forget that.
Give it a touch Mr. T?
Absolutely Skip.
Come on, huddle up, Billy. You too honey. Let's go.
Skip, you're going down.
Come on. You stay away there, Skip.
Alright, let's do this. Ready?
Team!
3-42. 3-42.
Never seen such a swollen-looking center.
What are you doing after the game, hot-kicks?
- Wouldn't you like to know! - Dad, come on!
Al right. Hike!
Dad?
All Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien will be...
evacuated by noon on April 7th 1942.
What do they mean, alien and non-alien?
They mean us.
Court that bad?
Coffee there makes this stuff gourmet.
Last day of boss's suspension.
Jeffrey said he's putting in his retirement papers.
- Any word on who would be coming in? - Not Jeffries.
Some clown from West. Been reassigned six times.
I didn't know what I'd do if I didn't come here every day.
Some things I'd miss, some things I wouldn't.
Like... court.
All pains in the ass those A.D.A's.
Yeah, real pains.
Oil and water. Cops and Lawyers.
Usually, that is.
More like 24/7.
Excuse me, are you detectives?
Yeah.
My father, Raymond Takahashi,
was killed in 1945.
- They never caught who did it. - It's sixty-plus years ago.
A long time.
I just found a 20,000-dollar check from the government...
- issued to my mother in the 1990. - Tax refund?
Restitution.
My family was...
at the Manzanar relocation center.
Manzanar? What's that?
A camp in California where they held Japanese-Americans during World War II.
- An internment camp. - I was born there.
Never knew it, my mother was too ashamed to tell me.
So, what's that gotta do with your father's murder?
My father was killed a few months after we got out and moved to Philly.
Maybe the police were looking in the wrong place for his murder.
Maybe, eh?
I found this old picture,
of my parents and my big brother Billy.
He died in the war.
The way she smiled at them...
She never looks at me like that.
I'd love one chance to meet the woman in that picture.
- We'll take a look. Can't promise we'll find anything - I understand.
Thank you.
So... the guy survived being locked up in an internment camp.
Only to be killed in the City of Brotherly Love.
credits
Ray Takahashi.
Body found a few blocks from the old municipal stadium.
Night of the Army-Navy football game.
He was beaten, pushed down a flight of stairs, broke his neck.
The theory was some drunk bigget roughed him up.
Took things to far.
All of two interviews were grow hard on this one.
Cause a Jap's a Jap, right?
Ray's family lived in California until
FTR banned all Japanese-Americans from the West Coast in 1942.
One hundred thousand were forced in the camps without do process.
Most were born and raised there.
And none were ever arrested for espionage.
Ray's son, Billy, gave up his life for the american dream.
Died overseas on 1944.
Were founds an empty envelope on Ray's body.
Addressed to him in Manzanar.
Return address just says APO 513.
Army post office. How we used to get our mail home.
The letter could be from his kid Billy.
Not likely. It was mailed November 27th, 1944.
Billy died October 13th.
An envelope, no letter.
Contents could be a motive.
So, what's the letter writer hiding? Something that happened in Manzanar?
Let's strike down all the records we can get from there and...
have Laitens take a look.
Good luck in the print off for sixty-year old envelope.
Boss was military too. Might have some input.
You'll have better luck with the print.
Thanks.
Quiet gettin' to you?
- I am not much of a cook, frankly. - Right.
You're here for the chili?
No... for a job.
A Japanese-American camp internee killed in '45.
The night of the Army-Navy game.
My father was at that game.
- Proud Army Man. - It must have broke his hearth.
- You're going Navy. - Ah! You got over it.
Eventually.
Found this on our victim's body,
APO is the only clue to who sent it.
Oh, have Laitens take a look.
I'm sure Jeffries already told you that.
Our victim's son, Billy, died in the war, he was an army guy.
442nd?
All Japanese-American unit.
Most decorated of the time, for its size.
Could use your eyes on this one, boss.
?????I put my papers in the ready though. You know that.
So, what are we supposed to do without you kickin' our asses?
You'll survive.
Enjoy your chili.
Why did you bring this stranger, here, Barbara?
- You know I don't wanna talk about it. - It's been 62 years, mom.
- Isn't it time you did? - You recognize this... Mrs Takahashi?
- No. - Your husband had it when he was killed.
- Do you know anyone in the Army who might have sent it? - No.
Quite a picture. You draw that?
My son did. Billy.
That's him with his best friend Skip, from home.
I heard about your son's unit, the 442nd.
- Not many have. - Real heroic guys.
The war was supposed to make us equal.
- It didn't. - Because... you were in the camps.
- It's okay to talk about it, mom. - What difference does it make.
Solving your husband's murder?
- Maybe Manzanar have something to do with it. - Why?
We were just a number, no names. 8108, like criminals.
Did you make any enemies here?
From the moment we arrived.
Let's go, get out, let's go, right now.
- Okay, sir. - Come on, quickly, quickly, ome on, right here.
Right here, in the line, right here, let's go, get your things.
Come on, right here, let's go, come on, move it.
- How long are we going to be here for? - Not too long.
It's for our own protection.
Then why are the guns pointed at us?
Billy, we'll just sit tight, be good citizens and won't be out of here **, understand?
- Name, Sir? - Takahashi.
You will be in block 18 room 7, with the Watsanabi family.
- We have to share? - At least we'll be together.
Mattresses. Down the way you can fill them with straw.
How's the school here? I bet you folks didn't know you got a young Rembrandt visiting.
- Are you an artist? - I guess.
Me too. I teach a painting class. It's gonna be fun.
I made this. So that you don't forget you're Americans.
- Just wanted to give you some sort of welcome. - Your smile is welcome enough.
I have seen nothing but frowns all day. The sun's still shining.
- Don't understand? - They're messing with you, Mary Anne?
No, Larry, it's okay.
I don't know why they let you people in this country.
I was born here.
And you got cousins in the old country, fighting for the Emperor?
Scholz. That german?
- Your cousins fighting for Hitler? - You watch it, Mister.
Pick it up. I said pick it up, Jap.
You know the funny thing about wars, kid?
They always find a way to end.
- We will meet outside this fence, one day. - Count on that.
Yeah.
But this guard, he headed out for your husband.
Patroled the camp, gun at a ready, looking for trouble.
- He and Ray ever had another running? - Not that I know of.
I found our guard, Larry Scholz.
Shipped out in Manzanar on '43. Stationed in Italy, till the end of the war.
- A rock-solid alibi if I ever heard of one. - Not quite.
He got a medal on the 1945 Army-Navy game, here in Philly.
- The same night Ray was killed. - Maybe they met up again.
Larry's side of the world needed one less jap.
'cause keeping them in prison wasn't enough.
We were at war. They'd have done the same to us, if you were in Japan.
Would you feel the same if it was your family?
So where is Larry Scholz's current place of residence?
Veterans Army Hospital at Virginia.
There's a five hour drive.
- Shame I got all this paperwork. - Shame I'm still on hold.
Have fun, sweet talking. Tollbooth Tennence.
Yeah.
Larry Scholz?
Philly P.D. We're here about Ray Takahashi.
- Taka what? - Hashi.
Takahashi. He was at Mazanar internment camp in 1942.
- Under you watch. - Murdered in '45.
- Witness think you had a beef with him. - Beef?
You kidding me? I was just doing my job.
- We were at war. - Imprisoning our own citizens, yeah.
- That make sense. - Saying you wouldn't think twice about sitting
on a plane next to an arab after 9/11?
Come on.
You sent this to Ray, all overseas?
Never seen that before in my life.
- Look close. - I'll look all you want.
- I didn't send that letter to some enemy out of state. - Hated the guy, didn't you?
Kept tabs on him at camp, sure.
- Part of my duties. - How long did you watch ray for.
Until I realizes his old ball and chain was keeping him too busy to make any trouble.
You're drawing me another pretty Blue Jay?
Sure, ma.
I was about to look at the bulletin of japanese-american enlistment.
- Does it mean we can leave? - Oh, no.
- It means you can enlist, son? - Enlist?
Prove as american as the rest.
You're gonna make a great soldier. I know you got it in you.
This why I'd be fighting for?
- Billy. - What did I say on the first day, dad?
- Private 8108, part of the duty. - This is just temporary.
We have to act right to prove ourselves?
- Don't say we don't belong here. - I'm not going.
What the hell is the matter with him?
We've been acting right for a year already in this place.
The whole contry is making sacrifices, we have to play our part.
We're living in a shack.
Standing in lines for food like baggers we have lost everything we worked for.
Open your eyes, Ray, for once.
Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, come on.
Calm down, Evelyn! You love those plates.
I'm pregnant.
What?
You are?
That's fantastic.
I can't... raise a baby in a place like this.
Not as a prisoner.
Didn't have hit him or harass him after that.
Real sweet of you, Larry.
- Where were you the night of the army navy game? - Getting my medal.
- Ask Truman. - Ceremony didn't last all night.
Talk to my commanding officer, he's right down the hall.
In the president suite.
- Larry Scholz's lieutenet confirmed his alibi. - A real gold prize, that guy.
Forgot your file, Lil.
John.
Good to see you.
- Just droppin' and off. - Any thoughts on who sent the envelope?
I talked to my military contacts about it.
The army post office number came from a french hospital.
- No army examiner stamp. - Meaning...
Meaning it didn't go through inspection. It came from an officer.
Thanks.
Gotta go. Good luck.
- Just droppin' something off... - Right.
Mazanar logs. One visitor in the three years Ray was there.
Skip Robertson, Billy's friend.
- Makes sense he would visit. - Turns out Skip was also Billy's lieutenent.
Injured in the same battle that killed Billy and friends.
- Could be our letter writer. - So what's he hiding?
Appreciate you driving out from Jersey, Skip.
Oh, please, call me Eugene.
- Recognize this hand writing? - Yeah, it's mine. Where did you get it?
Ray Takahashi had it....
when someone pushed him down a flight of stairs...
the night of the army-navy game in 1945.
- Ray Takahashi was murdered? - You that someone Skip?
Give him a push?
Probably were intown for the game, right?
I was with my army buddies all night, and I can give you names.
Do that.
Listen, Billy was my best friend and the Takahashis were like family to me!
Look... After Billy died I was sent to the South Pacific and we lost touch.
What was in the envelope?
It was the last letter Billy wrote before he died.
I found it in his things and sent it to his family.
- What did it say? - I don't know!
Listen, Billy was a brave soldier. They all were the 442nd.
Mmh... Billy didn't seem like your average gung-ho soldier.
He didn't want to enlist. And that broke Ray's heart. And that's the reason Ray asked me to come visit.
I just can't wait to get overseas and let those Nazis have it.
Your parents must be so proud.
Your dad says you're not joining up.
No matter what we do, we'll always be Japs to them.
Hey, you don't fight for this country, you make them right about us, Billy.
What do you know about fighting?
- What? - When you socked that guard, dad.
- You're supposed to stand up for yourself. - You are, but things aren't so simple now.
Not in this world.
They treat us like dirt, here.
How can you ask me to fight when you won't?
Ray.
- You've been telling the boys in the block to enlist? - You stay out of it, Shinji.
No, you stay out! This country treats our children...
- like cage animals! - Lower your voice...
- The guards will hear you and send you away. - Guards!
You know what this is? Toilet paper! Guess what we are.
Hey!
Did he do this?
- Don't ask me that, guard. - I'll ask what I want, tojo.
Did this man desecrate the American flag?
Yes.
You worthless traitor!
You have my boy's blood on your hands. This isn't over Ray, this isn't over!
Our kids! Think about it! Our kids!
I'll never forget the look on his face. Like Billy abandoned him.
You know if Shinji and Ray clashed again after that?
Now, Shinji was sent off to Tula Lake that day for desecrating the flag.
I saw him leave myself.
Looking into the 1945 murder of Ray Takahashi. Name ring a bell?
We lived in that rat hole they called the detention center.
- So What? - The Menzanar was no picnic.
- Tule Lake was even worse. - Long interrogations,
cold weather, stockades, you put up with a lot.
All because Ray Takahashi pinned you for a flag burner.
Then Ray ends up dead in same city you set your residence in.
Coincidence?
A lot of us came here after the war because of the quakers.
They helped us get back on our feet.
My wife and I stuck.
Y'know, a guy like that, a traitor...
sends me away from my family...
I'd be pretty pissed off.
So maybe you get out of the Tula Lake, swore to find your buddy Ray.
I was still behind barbed wire when Ray died.
Didn't get out of Tula Lake through '46,
Cause I answered no twice to the government loyalty questionnaire.
A loyalty questionnaire?
Asked if we'd be willing to fight in the war.
Renounce the Japanese Emperor.
- Ah! - And you refused to?
Didn't know the damn Emperor's name.
I was born here! Just like you!
As far as the government was concerned...
I was just a Jap.
And so was Ray.
But he still couldn't see it.
Hey Ray!
- You done for the day? - Uh, almost.
I've been reading up on your home town, Philadelphia.
I understand the quakers have quite a presence there.
We do.
Maybe when this... business is over...
- You could help me introduce me to some folks? - Of course.
- I can help you find an apartment. - I appreciate it.
Ah, wait. I've something for you.
Carrots. For your Victory Garden.
- You and Billy can buy at them. - Thanks.
- Buy them on my own, today. - Oh, busy with classes?
- Busy bliming me for the all war. - It's that age.
He doesn't want to enlist. Doesn't believe in dying for this country.
Doesn't make me a better american if part of me believes in that too?
No, not in this place.
I always tought I'll be judged on my character, not my skin.
- I was wrong. - Ray... you have to know...
I never saw you as the enemy.
It's not fair that you have to start over.
I've been starting over my whole life. Easy as pie.
- Thanks. - For what?
You make me forget about where we really are.
You make me forget too.
So, Ray and the quaker were doing the dirty?
The man preached loyalty on his soul box, but he wasn't loyal.
At least not to his wife.
Thanks for your time.
So, Mary Ann helped Ray move to Philly. Continue the affair?
Or not, the affair wouldn't found out?
Don't ?? betrayed wife, nothing worse than a womans scorn.
How about two?
Ray Takahashi? Haven't heard that name in 60 years.
- Well, we're investigating his murder. - Weren't you two pretty close? ??
Acquaintances at best.
That all? Mary Ann?
- What are you implying? - That you killed him.
When he won't leave his wife for you.
You think I killed my husband? And I wanted to raise a child on my own?
In that era, better is to be a widow than a divorcee?
Yes. Easy.
Or first Ray has an affair with a white woman, next he's
ollying you and the baby around the country to her home town.
Talk about a slap in the face. I'd be angry.
I was barely 25, young, fullish...
So you turned to Ray for some desert loving.
Men like Ray... are rare. Special.
What we were doing to them was wrong.
- You fell in love. - No.
We had that one kiss, that's all.
He said his wife was the only woman he could ever love.
Objection on that? Kind of hurt?
Certo che ero arrabbiata.
Ray told her I was the only woman he could love.
- And you believed him? - Ray was a gentleman.
We never spoke of it again.
Did his wife find out about it?
I didn't realize my one small indiscretion would destroy his family.
Takahashi.
Billy! Billy!
- What are you doing? - Joining up.
You're just going to leave, without saying goodbye, not even to your mother?
- I said goodbye to her. - What about me?
You? You talk about being american?
About liberty and truth?
- But you're the biggets liar here! - What are you talking about?
You and that school teacher... Everyone knows.
- You don't understand. - What?
Things aren't so simple, now? Was that your excuse for mom, too?
You wanna be a soldier, fine. But do it for the right reasons. This isn't about me.
Sure it is.
It's about taking a bullet for a Country that's turned you into a coward,
that's called me a Jap since I can remember.
- You don't know what it's like. - Don't I?
I've been called every name in the book,
treated like dirt, and I had to smile in the face of it,
but I've never let that destroy me, make me run away, like you are now, son. Don't go.
Not like this.
Too late.
Billy! Billy!
You do not walk away from me, damn it!
I want...
I want you to...
I want...
I want you to come home safe, son.
Home?
I don't have a home.
Not anymore.
We got the news about Billy a few months later.
And they never got a chance to make peace?
But I made sure that Ray took me up on the offer of the job and the apartment.
- That was the least I could do. - Because you were the reason Billy enlisted?
You got your apartment because of Mary Ann's...
- generosity? - If living that hell
meant taking advantage of a crush some... silly woman had on my husband, then so be it.
Any mother would have done the same.
For Barbara?
And for my son.
I wanted him to come home to a real home.
Not one behind bars.
But he never got that chance.
And we'll leave in a big train and you'll get to feel cool air instead of this...
dusty, cold wind.
Trying to be here soon.
I stopped by the woodworking hut.
I've been...
I've been making these for you, to replace what we had.
Plus, the next time you'll get mad at me, they won't break.
I guess it's time for the back up plan.
- Don't give up? - Don't give up.
On us.
You're my own life,
you're the only thing that kept me going, here.
We use 'em in Philadelphia, in our new home, when Billy returns, the four of us.
The four of us?
I like the sound of that.
It's time to go.
Ray, what is it?
Ray?
That's how they told us our son was dead.
In a telegram.
I'm sorry.
It breaks my heart that Ray and Billy died angry at each other.
It broke Ray's too.
We weren't the only family that got a telegram that day.
Shinji's family got one.
Shinji Nakamura?
The neighbor who went to Tule Lake? His son was in the Army?
One of the first to enlist.
Ray... talked him into it.
All right, I got Shinji's Tule Lake records.
- Alibi check up? - No.
Shinji wasn't realesed in 1946 like he said.
Got out on november 23rd, 1945.
- A few days before Ray was killed. - Even better.
He used a train ticket the government bought him... to head to Philly.
But his wife was in California.
And you don't travel 3,000 miles just to say hello.
"You have blood on your hands, convincing our boys to fight. This isn't over."
Wasn't just any blood Ray had on his hands, it was your son's.
My son would've done anything to prove he was american.
- He got his wish. - But doesn't change the fact that
you were in Philadelphia when Ray was murdered.
See? We make our threats too.
- Checked the record at Tule Lake. - 25 bucks and a ticket to Philly.
- I came here to see Ray, but I didn't kill him. - Then why lie?
Frankly? Not a lot of faith in the american justice system.
Point taken. Doesn't answer the question.
I came here to give him Billy's letter.
They were long gone when the letter got to Manzanar.
- Didn't realize you two were Bosom Buddies. - We weren't.
But Ray paid the same price I did to this Country.
A son.
He deserved to have that letter.
- And I had a question to ask him. - What question?
How to go on.
But it was clear, he no longer had any answers for me.
Ray...
What are you doing here?
This letter came to Manzanar after you left. My wife wanted to make sure you got it.
I don't want anything from that place.
It's from Billy.
Billy's gone.
They're saying they can't send my boy's body home,
for at least another year.
Do you know what I'd do for a letter? Anything, from him?
They already tore it down,
the camp.
Like it never existed.
My son died for a country that tosses us out seems
like the kitchen garbage.
I'm not surprising they don't remember our boys names.
They were heroes.
And this country should give our boys the medals they deserve.
Can they bring him back to me, Shinji?
Can they do that?
Shinji, wait! Shinji!
He said he was going to give Billy his medal.
Change his mind, just like that?
After he read Billy's letter...
That's why he was ahead at the stadium,
Army-Navy.
Ray wasn't giving up the Distinguish Black Medal that night.
Billy deserved the medal,
and your son did too.
Threw himself on a granade to save his batallion.
One brave kid.
His dad's last wish was to see him honored for it.
Isn't this what we speak for?
People like Billy... Ray...
are you sure you can walk away from them, boss?
If Ray wanted the son to get that medal, he needed a nomination from his commanding officer
Billy's friend, Skip?
He was at the Army-Navy game that night.
France, Italy, South Pacific.
Two brown stars and a purple heart.
You were quite a soldier, Skip.
Call me Eugene.
I served in Vietnam my self.
- You hurt more than we did. - War is war, all right?
I had a buddy in there, Manny Hijshoj filippino guy.
There we were fighiting off vietcong and I'm stuck with a guy that look just like the enemy.
Were really odds, right?
A soldier is a soldier.
Manny prove themeselves to be: he died to save another guy in our unit.
A hero.
Once we were on patrol we got caught in an ambush.
We got tore up pretty bad.
When the smoke cleared, I saw this Gook running towards me.
I came this close to kill him.
- But he was Manny. - Why are you doing me this?
Billy was your bestfriend.
Yes, he was.
A first-rate guy.
So what happened?
When he died you were shipped at the South Pacific.
You saw kamikazes ruin your ships, POW Camps ruin your friends.
- I get it Eugene, believe me. - There's nothing to get.
They want you to come back to this world
and be the same as when you left.
But you are not.
Ray Takahashi appealed
to Skip, the boy he knew in California.
But Skip was gone.
Fight for your life every day,
yeah, you know they're out there.
And those faces... hating you.
Faces that look like Billy and like Ray.
That's why they put them in these camps!
They didn't deserve medals, they were the enemy.
Skip!
Go on, catch up with the rest later.
I need to talk to you.
I can't... shipping back out tomorrow.
It's about Billy. He deserves the Distinguish Black Medal.
Those medals are for american heroes.
It's what he was, you know it.
Billy sacrificed him self to save others.
So what you people do, isn't it?
Kamikazes, suicide mission,
- Skip... - Kill yourselves,
and take good innocent people with you.
A Jap is a Jap.
What happened to you over there?
Why send this letter if he didn't care about us anymore?
Read this, read this and tell me it's a lie.
Stop!
- Tell me those boys weren't heroes. - Stop!
- And Billy doesn't deserve that medal. - Go home, Jap!
I am home. My boy was more american than you'll ever be.
Dear dad,
it's the night before we go in the battle, and i can't sleep.
Even in my dreams I hear the artillery and I'm so afraid.
When I need to be brave,
I think of you, dad.
And your strenght in the world that's no longer simple.
Sometimes I dream I'm home again,
drawing pictures of you, mom and little Barbara.
And none of us behind bars,
because in my dreams we are free.
I know now that's why I'm here:
it's not about who I'm fighting against but who I'm fighting for:
you dad.
I want your dream's America could be.
Should be.
I see all of us in this battle field,
white, black, brown, yellow...
and that's the America I know.
Maybe one day I'll see you there, dad.
Love,
your son, Billy.
Synch: hipopo, matters, hnort, Levigna, supersimo, popis