Honor Bound Revisited:
Retracing My Father’s Path with the 442nd
Saturday, August 8
More than 30 years ago, television journalist, Wendy Hanamura, set out to capture the story of the 442nd/100th Regimental Combat Team through the eyes of her father, Sgt. Haruo Hanamura. Her father and his 442nd comrades were then in their seventies, able to laugh and cry and recount some of the darkest days of the war. Wendy travelled with these Company L veterans to France and Italy retracing their footsteps through some of the bloodiest battles of WWII. The resulting documentary, Honor Bound: A Personal Journey is now available to the public in the Densho Library and the Internet Archive.
Come watch this Emmy-award-winning documentary with multimedia producer, photographer & archivist, Brad Shirakawa. Together last summer, Wendy and Brad retraced her father’s time in the south of France during the “Champagne Campaign,” exploring what is left of the villages, bunkers, and grand hotels of Nice where the 442nd wintered in 1944. Brad will share his research and photo documentaries of this little-known part of the 442nd story.
The event is presented by Friends of Topaz, Topaz Museum, and J-Sei.
Photo (above): Wendy Hanamura at Col de Braus, September 13, 2025. Photos are courtesy of Brad Shirakawa.
RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.
Pont Vieux, Sospel
Sospel, France
Wendy Hanamura and Brad Shirakawa, 2025.
442 in the Alpes-Maritime
Honor Bound
HONOR BOUND tells the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team through the story of one soldier, Haruo Howard “Howe” Hanamura, and his daughter, television reporter Wendy Hanamura, who travel to Europe in October 1994 for 50th anniversary ceremonies of the liberation of Bruyeres and Biffontaine by the 442nd. The film was produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) and KPIX, San Francisco
Wendy Hanamura
Over her 30+-year career in the media, Wendy has reported and produced stories around the world for Time, CBS, World Monitor Television, NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation), LinkTV and PBS. In 2014 she joined the Internet Archive—the world’s largest digital library– as the Director of Partnerships.
Wendy began her career as a photo editor for Time Magazine in New York. Her 1983 thesis took her to Hiroshima to live with and photograph aging hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombing. Her favorite project remains Honor Bound: A Personal Journey, the Emmy-award winning documentary she produced about her father and his storied unit, the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Brad Shirakawa
Brad took his first serious picture in 1970, idolizing Ansel Adams. He graduated from San Jose State with a photojournalism degree and worked for a small town newspaper for several years, where he photographed President Bill Clinton, the 49ers and the Pet of the Week.
For some 20 years he has produced Japanese American history. Brad was the author of The Street That Dreams Are Made Of, a book commemorating the 100 year history of a Japanese church in Palo Alto, CA. He was also the photo editor for Generations, a Japanese American Community Portrait. More recently he was the Project Director for the Alameda Japanese American History Project, a three year federal grant. Several thousand photographs, documents, PDFs and stories were generated and all went to Densho and the Internet Archive. Brad is currently a reporter, page designer and photographer for the Nikkei West newspaper where he does not have to shoot the Pet of the Week.