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BI Filmakers Win Prestigious Erik Barnouw Award for Film About Merrill’s Marauder Roy Matsumoto

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Bainbridge Island couple Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers, the team behind Stourwater Pictures, have received lots of attention before: Sellers worked on PBS’s Frontline and many nationally television documentary series, and Ostrander’s films and work have won a Student Academy Award, the Nissan Focus Award, a CINE Golden Eagle, and an Artist Trust Fellowship. Now their latest film Honor & Sacrifice has been recognized with the Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians for outstanding programming in a documentary film concerned with American history.

Honor & Sacrifice tells the story of Roy Matsumoto, a Nisei (the first generation born of Japanese emigrants) and, through the telling, also the story of Japanese Americans, their World War II internment in the United States, and their service to their country.

Honor & Sacrifice PosterMatsumoto was born on a farm in Los Angeles in 1913. At age 8, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Hirsohima for his education. He returned to California at age 17 and graduated from high school there in 1933. His parents relocated the family back to Hiroshima, but Matsumoto stayed behind.

At the beginning of the war, he was interned in the Jerome, Arkansas, concentration camp along with other Japanese Americans. But in 1942, he volunteered for military service and was sent as an Army Japanese-language intelligence specialist to the Burma Campaign as part of Merrill’s Marauders.

Merrill’s Marauders, the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), was a long range penetration special operations jungle warfare unit. They were crucial in the China-Burma-India Theater of the war, engaging in missions deep behind Japanese lines. They used mules and horses for their jungle transport and traveled over 1,000 miles through the Himalayas to reach Burma. Although they were usually outnumbered in Burma by the enemy, their surprise tactics and firing accuracy inflicted heavy casualties.

Matsumoto receiving the Bronze Star

Matsumoto receiving the Bronze Star

They endured disease and malnourishment, and at the end of the war there were only 130 combat-ready men out of the original 3,000. The rest had perished, were injured, or had fallen ill.

Matsumoto was one of the survivors. He served in the Army for 20 years. He was awarded a Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit. He was later inducted into the U.S. Army Rangers Hall of Fame and the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011.

He retired in 1963 as a Master Sergeant. He lived on San Juan Island until April 21 of this year, one-month before his 101st birthday and just after the film was recognized with the Erik Barnouw Award on April 12.

The Award was the only award given by OAH for film this year. Barnouw, for whom the award is named, was a Columbia University historian of the mass media. Ken Burns is a past winner of the award.

The film was named Best Short Documentary at the Port Townsend Film Festival and at the Gig Harbor Film Festival in 2013 and won a 2013 CINE Golden Eagle.

Watch a clip here.

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Photos courtesy of Stourwater Pictures.


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