[The Andrew Sisters singing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"]
Hey, we're running out of sun, dingbat.
- 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's Dad?
Working late, I suppose.
[male announcer on radio] 'And now, a new update.'
'Yesterday, Japan continued its attacks along Mount Samat.'
'The US Philippine Division suffered heavy losses..'
[car honking]
- Oh, my God. - Golly.
[car honking]
♪ The company jumps when he plays reveille ♪
♪ He's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B ♪
♪ A-toot a-toot a-toot-diddlyada-toot.. ♪
Sorry I'm late, sweetheart.
How can we afford a new car?
[Ray] 'The bank just cleared 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. - Is this a Packard?
Yep, gonna drive you to art classes in style.
Hey, what do we have here?
Some fatheads at school.
Blame me for Pearl Harbor.
But we're as American as those boys.
You sock 'em back?
- I thought fighting was bad. - 'It is.'
But standin' up for yourself is another thing, son.
Don't forget that, alright?
Game of touch, Mr. T?
- Absolutely, Skip. - Here you go.
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?
Ready? Team!
342!
Oh, never seen such a swell-looking center.
What are ya doing after the game, hotcakes?
Wouldn't you like to know.
- Dad, come on! - Alright, hike!
♪ He's the boogie woogie bugle boy ♪
♪ Of Company B ♪
Dad?
'"All Japanese persons, both alien'
"and non-alien, will be evacuated
"by noon on April 7, 1942."
What do they mean, "alien and non-alien"?
They mean us.
[eerie music]
[melancholic music]
Court that bad?
Coffee there makes this stuff gourmet.
The last day of boss' suspension.
Jeffries said he put in his retirement papers.
Any word on who'll be coming in?
Well, not Jeffries.
Some clown from West.
Been reassigned six times.
Don'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 ADAs.
Yeah, real pains.
Oil and water, cops and lawyers.
Usually, that is.
More like 24/7.
[Barbara] 'Excuse me.'
Are you detectives?
Yeah.
My father, Raymond Takahashi, was killed
'in 1945.'
They never caught who did it.
60-plus years ago, long time.
I just found a $20,000 check from the government
issued to my mother in 1990.
Tax refund?
Restitution.
[Barbara] '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 got to do with your father's murder?
Well, my father was killed a few months
after we got out, moved to Philly.
Maybe the police were looking
in the wrong place for his murderer?
Maybe.
[Barbara] 'I found this old picture..'
'...of my parents and my big brother, Billy.'
Well, 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 survives being locked up
in an internment camp.
Only to be killed in the City of Brotherly Love.
[theme music]
[music continues]
Ray Takahashi.
'Body found a few blocks from the old'
Municipal Stadium.
[Will] -'Night of the Army/ - Navy football game.'
He was beaten, pushed down a flight
of stairs, broke his neck.
Theory was some drunk bigot roughed him up.
Took things too far.
All of two interviews
worked real hard on this one.
'Cause, "A Jap's a Jap," right?
Well, Ray's family lived in California
till FDR banned all
Japanese-Americans from the West Coast in 1942.
[Will] 'Over 100,000'
were forced into camps without due process.
Most were born and raised here.
And none were ever arrested for espionage.
Ray's son, Billy, gave up his life for the American dream.
Died overseas in 1944.
Found 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.
[Rush] 'Not likely; it was mailed'
November 27, 1944.
Billy died October 30.
[Will] An envelope, no letter.
Contents could be a motive.
So what's our letter writer hidin'?
Something that happened at Manzanar?
Let's track down all the records we can get from there
and have Latents take a look.
[Valens] 'Good luck getting a print off'
a 60-year-old envelope.
Boss was military, too.
Might have some input.
You'd have better luck with the print.
Thank you.
Quiet getting to you?
I'm not much of a cook, frankly.
Right.
You here for the chili?
No, for a job.
A Japanese-American camp internee killed in '45.
- Night of the Army/ - Navy game.
My father went to that game.
Proud Army man.
Well, it must've broke his heart.
- You going Navy. - 'Uh.'
He got over it...eventually.
Found this on our victim's body.
APO's the only clue to who sent it.
Well, have Latents take a look.
I'm sure Jeffries already told you that.
[Rush] 'Our victim's son, Billy'
died in the war. Was an Army guy
442nd.
An all Japanese-American unit.
Most decorated battalion for its size.
I could use your eyes on this one, boss.
I put my papers in already, Lil. You know that.
So what're we supposed to do without you kickin' our asses?
Huh?
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.
He know anyone in the Army who might've sent it?
No.
That's quite the picture.
'You draw that?'
My son did. Billy.
That's him with his best friend, Skip, from home.
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 had something to do with it.'
Why? We were just a number.
No names. 8108.
Like criminals.
He make any enemies there?
From the moment we arrived.
[Vera Lynn singing "White Cliffs of Dover"]
[male #1] 'Let's go! Bring it out! Let's go!'
- Come on, right now! - Yes, sir.
Move it out, quickly! Quickly!
Come on, right here! Right here! In a line!
Right here! Let's go!
'Get your things.'
'Come on, right here, let's go.'
'Come on, move it.'
♪ The white cliffs of Dover
♪ Tomorrow just you wait and see ♪
How long are we going to be here for?
Not too long.
It's for our own protection.
But why are the guns pointed at us?
Billy, we just sit tight, be good citizens and
we'll be out of here lickety-split, understand?
Your name, sir?
Takahashi.
Okay, you will be in Block 18, room 7
with the Watanabe family.
We have to share?
At least we'll be together.
Mattresses.
Down the way, you can fill them with straw.
Uh, so how is the school here?
Bet you folks didn't know you've got a young Rembrandt visiting.
Oh, are you an artist?
- I guess. - Me too.
I teach a pen and ink class.
It's gonna be fun.
I made this
so that you don't forget you're Americans.
I just wanted to give you some sort of welcome.
Well, your smile is welcome enough.
I've seen nothing but frowns all day.
Sun's still shinning.
Don't understand.
He messing with you, Mary Anne?
No, Larry. It's okay.
Don't know why they let you people in this country.
- I was born here. - Uh-huh?
Bet 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.
The funny thing about wars, kid..
...they always find a way to end.
Hope we meet outside this fence one day.
Count on that.
Yeah.
And this guard had it out for your husband?
He trolled the camp, gun at the ready
looking for trouble.
He and Ray ever have another run-in?
Not that I know of.
[Vera] 'I found our guard.'
Larry Scholz. Shipped out of Manzanar in '43.
Stationed in Italy till the end of the war.
A rock-solid alibi if I ever heard one.
Not quite. Got a medal at - the 1945 Army/ - Navy Game
'here in Philly.'
It's the same night Ray was killed.
[Valens] 'Maybe they met up again'
and Larry decided 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 we were in Japan.
Feel the same if it was your family?
So where's Larry Scholz's current place of residence?
Uh... VA Hospital at Virginia.
Whoa. That's a five-hour drive.
Shame I got all this paperwork.
Shame I'm still on hold.
Have fun, sweet-talking
tollbooth attendants.
Yeah.
[Vera] 'Larry Scholz?'
[Miller] 'Philly PD.'
Here about Ray Takahashi.
Taga what?
Hashi. Takahashi.
He was at the Manzanar internment camp in 1942
under your watch.
[Vera] 'Murdered in '45.'
Witness thinks 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 makes sense.
Sayin' you wouldn't think twice about
sittin' on a plane next to an Arab after 9/11?
Come on.
Did you send this to Ray while 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 of the 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?
Till I realized his old ball and chain was keeping him
too busy to make any trouble.
[Glenn Miller singing "This Is No Laughing Matter"]
You drawing me another pretty blue jay?
Sure, Ma.
Hey, Roosevelt lifted the ban
against Japanese-American enlistment.
Does that mean we can leave?
Oh, no. But it means you can enlist, son.
Enlist?
Prove we're as American as the rest.
[Ray] 'You're gonna make a great soldier.'
I know you got it in ya.
- This what I'd be fighting for? - Billy..
What would I say on the first day, Dad?
Private 8108, reporting to duty?
This is just temporary.
We act right, prove ourselves
they'll see we don't belong here.
I'm not going.
What the hell's the matter with him?
We've been acting "right"
for a year already in this place.
The whole country's making sacrifices.
We have to play our part.
We're living in a shack, standing in line
for food like beggars.
We have lost everything we worked for.
Open your eyes, Ray, for once!
Wait, wait, wait!
Wait, wait... Come on!
You love them, 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.
♪ Break my heart ♪
Didn't have it in me to 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's suite.
[Rush] 'Larry Scholz's lieutenant'
confirmed his alibi.
A real door prize, that guy.
Forgot your file, Lil.
John.
Good to see you.
Just droppin' it 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's stamp.' - Meaning?
Meaning it didn't go through inspection.
It came from an officer.
Hmm. Thanks.
Gotta go. Good luck.
Just dropping something off.
Right.
Manzanar logs.
One visitor the three years Ray was there.
Skip Robertson.
Billy's friend.
Makes sense he would visit.
Turns out Skip was also Billy's lieutenant.
Injured in the same battle that killed Billy in France.
Could be our letter writer.
So what's he hidin'?
Appreciate you driving out from Jersey, Skip.
Oh, please, call me Eugene.
Hmm.
Recognize this handwriting?
'Yeah...it's mine.'
Where'd you get it?
Ray Takahashi had it
when someone pushed him down a flight of stairs
- the night of the Army/ - Navy game in '45.
Ray Takahashi was murdered?
You that someone, Skip? Give him a push?
Probably were in town 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.
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 on his things and sent it to his family.
- What'd it say? - I don't know.
Listen, Billy was a brave soldier.
They all were, the 442nd.
Billy didn't seem like your average gung-ho soldier.
He didn't want to enlist, and it broke Ray's heart.
And that's the reason Ray asked me to come visit.
["Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition"]
I just can't wait to get overseas.
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 won't fight for this country
you make them right about us, Billy.
What do you know about fighting?
What?
Why didn't you sock that guard, Dad?
I thought you were supposed to stand up for yourself.
[Ray] '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?
[Shinji] 'Ray.'
You been telling boys on the block to enlist?
You stay out of this, Shinji.
No, you stay out.
This country treats our children like caged animals--
Lower your voice.
The guards will hear you, send you away.
Guards.
You know what this is?
Toilet paper. Guess what we are.
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'll have our boys' blood on your hands!'
'This isn't over, Ray!'
This isn't over!
'Our kids, think about it! Our kids!'
♪ Pass the ammunition and we'll all ♪
♪ Be free ♪
I never forget the look on his face..
...like Billy abandoned him.
Do you know if Shinji and Ray clashed again after that?
Now, Shinji was sent off to Tule Lake that day
for desecrating the flag, and I saw him leave myself.
[Vera] 'Looking into the 1945 murder of Ray Takahashi.'
Name ring a bell?
We lived in that rat hole they called
a detention center. So what?
Heard Manzanar was no picnic; Tule Lake was even worse.
[Valens] 'Long interrogations, cold weather'
stockades, you put up with a lot.
All because Ray Takahashi pinned you for a flag burner.
[Valens] 'Then Ray ends up dead in the same city'
you set up 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.
[Valens] A guy like that
"traitor", sends me away from my family
I'd be pretty pissed off.
So maybe you get out of Tule Lake
sore to find your buddy Ray.
I was still behind barbed wire when Ray died.
Didn't get out of Tule Lake till '46
'cause I answered "no" twice
to the government loyalty questionnaire.
Loyalty questionnaire?
Asked if we'd be willing to fight in the war
renounce the Japanese emperor.
Oh, 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.
♪ Why do you whisper green grass ♪
♪ Why tell the trees what ain't so ♪
♪ Whispering grass
♪ The trees don't have to know.. ♪
Hey, Ray.
You done for the day?
Ah, almost.
[Ray] 'I've been reading up on your hometown, Philadelphia.'
Understand the Quakers have quite a presence there.
We do.
Maybe when this business is over..
...you could help introduce me to some folks.
Of course.
I could help you find an apartment.
I appreciate it.
Uh, wait, I have something for you.
Carrots.
For your victory garden.
You and Billy can plant them.
Thanks, but I'm on my own today.
Oh, busy with classes?
Busy blaming me for the whole war.
It's that age.
He..
He doesn't want to enlist.
Doesn't believe in dying for this country.
Does it make me a bad American
if part of me believes that now, too?
No. Not in this place.
I always thought I'd 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.
♪ Why tell them all the old things ♪
♪ They're buried under the snow.. ♪
So, Ray and the Quaker were doing the dirty?
The man preached loyalty on his soapbox
but he wasn't loyal.
At least not to his wife.
Thanks for your time.
So Mary Anne helped Ray move to Philly.
Continued the affair?
Or not, if Evelyn found out.
Dumped mistress, betrayed wife.
Nothing worse than a woman scorned.
How about two?
[Mary] 'Ray Takahashi?'
Haven't heard that name in 60 years.
We're investigating his murder.
Heard you two were pretty close.
Acquaintances at best.
That all, Mary Anne?
What are you implying?
That you killed him.
'When he wouldn't leave his wife for you.'
You think I killed my husband?
That I wanted to raise a child on my own?
That era? Easier to be a widow than a divorcee.
Yes.
Easy.
First Ray has an affair with a white woman.
Next he's hauling you and the baby
around the country to her hometown.
Talk about a slap in the face.
I'd be angry.
I was barely 25.
Young, foolish.
So you turned to Ray for some desert lovin'.
Men like Ray were 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.
[Miller] 'Rejection like that?'
Gotta hurt.
Of course I was angry.
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.
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 were just going to leave without saying good-bye?
Not even to your mother?
I said good-bye to her.
What about me?
You?
You talk about being American
about liberty and truth
but you're the biggest liar here.
What are you talking about?
You and that schoolteacher.
- Everyone knows. - You don't understand.
What?
Things aren't so simple now?
Is 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 had to smile in the face of it.
'But I never let that destroy me'
'make me run away.'
Like you are now, son.
Don't go, not like this.
Too late.
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.
They never got a chance to make peace.
[Mary] '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 Anne's...generosity?
If leaving 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 on a big train.
And you'll get to feel cool air
instead of this dusty, cold wind.
[Ray] 'Train will 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 get mad at me, they won't break.
I guess it's time for the backup plan.
Don't give up?
Don't give up..
...on us.
You're my whole life.
You're the only thing that kept me going here.
We'll use them in Philadelphia.
In our new home
when Billy returns.
The four of us.
I like the sound of that.
It's time to go.
[Evelyn] 'Ray, what is it?'
[melancholic music]
Ray?
'Ray?'
[sobbing]
[Evelyn] 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.
Finally got Shinji's Tule Lake records.
- Alibi check out? - Nope.
Shinji wasn't released in 1946 like he said.
Got out on November 23, 1945.
Few days before Ray was killed.
Even better, he used the 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.
[Vera] '"You'll 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.
That doesn't change the fact that you were
in Philadelphia when Ray was murdered.
See, we make good on our threats, too.
'Checked the records at Tule Lake.'
Twenty five 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 came 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.
♪ I'm making believe
♪ That you're in my arms
♪ Though I know you're so far away.. ♪
Ray?
What are you doing here?
[Shinji] '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.
[Shinji] '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?
[Shinji] Anything from him?
[Ray] 'They already tore it down.'
The camp.
Like it never existed.
My son died for a country
that tosses out its sins like the kitchen garbage.
I'm surprised they even remember our boys' names.
They were heroes.
And this country
should give our boys the medals they deserve.
♪ Making believe it's you
Can they bring him back to me, Shinji?
Can they do that?
♪ And here in the gloom of my lonely room ♪
Shinji, wait.
Shinji!
He said he was going to get Billy his medal.
He changed his mind just like that?
After he read Billy's letter.
That's why he was outside the stadium.
- Army/ - Navy game.
They were giving out the..
...Distinguished Combat Medals that night.
Billy deserved a medal.
Your son did, too.
Threw himself on a grenade
to save a white battalion.
What a brave kid.
And Dad's last wish was to see him honored for it.
Isn't this is who we speak for?
People like Billy, Ray?
Sure you can walk away from them, boss?
If Ray wanted his son to get that medal
he'd need a nomination from his commanding officer.
Billy's friend Skip.
He was at the Army-Navy game that night.
France. Italy.
The South Pacific.
Two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
You were quite the soldier, Skip.
Call me Eugene now.
I served in Vietnam myself.
Then you had it worse than we did.
'War is war, right?'
I had a buddy in 'Nam, Manny Isoy.
Filipino guy.
Here we were fighting off the Viet-cong
and I'm stuck with a guy who looked just like the enemy.
What are the odds, huh?
A soldier's a soldier.
Manny proved himself to be.
He died saving another guy in our unit.
A hero.
[Stillman] 'Once we were on patrol we'
got caught in an ambush.
He got tore up pretty bad.
When the smoke cleared
I saw this gook running towards me.
I came this close to killing him.
But it was Manny.
Why are you telling me this?
Billy was your best friend.
Yes, he was.
A first-rate guy.
So what happened?
'When he died, you were shipped to 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're not.
Ray Takahashi appealed to Skip
the boy he knew in California
but Skip was gone.
Fighting for your life every day.
You-You know they're out there.
And those faces... hating you.
Faces that looked like Billy and like Ray?
That's why they put them in these camps!
They didn't deserve medals.
They were the enemy.
♪ When the lights go on again
[laughter and squealing]
♪ All over the world
[woman laughing]
♪ And the boys are home again
[Ray] 'Skip!'
♪ All over the world
Go on. I'll just catch up with you guys later.
♪ That may fall from the skies above ♪
- I need to talk to you. - Can't.
Shipping back out tomorrow.
It's about Billy.
He deserves the Distinguished Combat Medal--
Those medals are for American heroes.
That's what he was, and you know it.
Billy sacrificed himself to save others.
That's what you people do, isn't it?
Kamikazes.
Suicide missions.
- Skip-- - Kill yourselves.
And you take good, innocent people with you.
A Jap's a Jap.
What happened to you over there?
Why send this letter if you didn't care about us anymore?
Read this.
Read this and tell me it's a lie.
Stop.
- Tell me those boys weren't-- - Stop!
That Billy doesn't deserve that medal.
Go home, Jap.
I am home.
My boy was more
of an American than you'll ever be.
[dramatic music]
[Billy] "Dear Dad..
"...it's the night before we go into 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 strength in a world that's no longer simple.
"Sometimes I dream I'm home again
"drawing pictures of you, Mom and little Barbara.
"None of us behind bars.
"Because in my dreams, we're 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.
"And what your dreams of America could be.
"Should be.
"I see all of us on this battlefield
"white, black
"brown, yellow.
"And that's the America I know.
"Maybe one day I'll see you there, Dad.
Love, your son, Billy."
[instrumental music]
[theme music]
[music continues]