What Was The Only The Brave And 442nd Regiment

Only The Brave and 442nd Regiment On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy in a sneak attack that left a total of around 2,403 Americans dead, and over 1178 injured. This devastating attack by the Japanese admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto, was able to debilitate the American navy. At the end of the day 19 U.S. Navy ships were destroyed or damaged. This attack on Pearl Harbor shocked the nation, and the U.S. joined the second world war. During the war, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were put into internment camps because of fears of Japanese spies. Nevertheless, hundreds of Japanese American men joined the U.S. in the armed forces in an attempt to win the war for their country. The 442nd was an all
Japanese American combat unit that was formed due to the requests by the Nisei (second generation Japanese americans) to join the army and fight for America.
The 442nd regiment fought in Europe, with several major campaigns in Italy, France, and Germany. With their motto, “Go for Broke,” the 442nd often times encountered especially dangerous situations. An example of this would be their rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in southern France, where the 442nd lost more than 800 men as they saved 211 men from the Texan Battalion. Subsequently, the 442nd received many awards. In fact, the 442nd became the most decorated unit in American history with over 18,000 awards. “These awards include 9,500 purple hearts, 5,200 bronze star Medals, 588 Silver Stars, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 7 Distinguished Unit Citations, and one Congressional Medal of Honor,” According to the This great number of awards gave the 442nd the nickname of “The Purple Heart Battalion.” The 442nd Battalion is the most decorated unit in American history and through their sacrifices, they were able to prove their loyalty to the U.S. even if it was not accepted by
the rest of the Americans immediately. “Only The Brave” is a movie by Lane Nishikawa loosely based on the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
The film follows the story of Sgt. Jimmy Takata who is seeing flashbacks (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) of his experiences in the war. Through his flashbacks we catch a glimpse of his participation the liberation of a French town where he met an orphaned little girl and in the rescue of the “Lost Battalion.” In the French town Jimmy suffers from a head wound caused by a bullet ricocheting off of his helmet. This causes him to be illegible to help in the rescue of the Texan Battalion, however, Jimmy and his friends get around this by sneaking out to the front lines where they join the savage attack on the Germans in an attempt to save their fellow Americans. Unfortunately for Jimmy, most of his friends die in the attack, succumbing to grenades and gunfire, and after the battle Jimmy notes that 211 men were saved at the cost of over 800. Overall, “Only The Brave” has of bad acting, bad settings, and the movie is underdeveloped. This movie had a lot of potential to be a great movie because of the incredible story of the 442nd regiment. However, in this film the setting is in one area of France the entire time, the acting was not very good with blank stares and fake Japanese accents, and the history behind why the 442nd was a segregated unit was not answered the entire
time. The historical accuracy of “Only The Brave” is not as lousy as the movie itself. Like most other movies based on real events, there are dramatizations and some things added in order to try to further captivate the audience. This movie was no different with the addition of the French orphan girl who would not stay with an army camp as they moved throughout France. Another instance when “Only The Brave” showed some fictionalization was during the battle to save the “Lost Battalion.” In this scene, Jimmy and his friends are injured and are somehow still able to get to the front lines. Besides this the rest of the movie was not that bad historically speaking (although this may be because of lack of content). In conclusion, “Only The Brave” is a dramatic action movie about the 442nd regimental combat unit, the segregated combat unit for Japanese Americans, and the ordeal that Jimmy Takata goes through, with his friends trying to help rescue the Texan Battalion. I would give “Only The Brave” a rating of 1 out of five, because it has bad acting, bad settings, and because the movie is underdeveloped and didn’t go as far as this great story about courage, and self-sacrifice could of taken them.