Defining Courage Through Music and Theater: The Story of America’s Nisei Soldiers
“These guys were great heroes. They could not have done what they did without immense courage… ”
By Kimia Adibi, Cal Performances’ Public Relations Assistant
“[It] was an accident.”
This is what Emmy Award-winning journalist David Ono says of the journey behind creating Story Boldly’s Defining Courage, a multimedia live stage production that commemorates the struggles and sacrifices of the Nisei soldiers of World War II. Cal Performances presents the production on Friday, April 4 at Zellerbach Hall.
Despite decades of experience as a television journalist (he is an anchor on KABC-TV in Los Angeles), and even with his own Japanese American heritage, Ono had never fully grasped the magnitude of this legacy—American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who became some of the most decorated troops in U.S. military history.
“It didn’t really come to me all at once,” Ono reflects. “In the first two or three years, I understood—just through people I trusted—that this is an important story. But to understand all the nuances, how important it is to a generation of people, how much they sacrificed, how great soldiers they were—there was a huge volume of information that I had to learn along the way.” This gradual discovery process shapes how he presents the story to the public. From this, Ono hopes the audience will “grasp in one sitting what took me years to understand.”
The seed that grew into the project of Defining Courage today came initially from Go For Broke, an educational center in Los Angeles dedicated to preserving the Nisei soldier legacy, which had asked Ono to deliver a keynote speech at an event. At first, he actually turned them down. “I am in the program every year. I felt, being elevated to the keynote speech, I would just be regurgitating everything I learned from them back to them.”
Yet, later that year, while filming a proposed documentary about Nisei soldiers on European battlefields, standing on the very ground where these Japanese American heroes had once fought, the distance between then and now collapsed. Seeing these historic sites and meeting people who still remembered the soldiers sparked an idea: why not bring the audience there?
What started as a filmed presentation accompanied by familiar songs (borrowed pieces from Coldplay and John Legend) eventually grew into a full-scale production. Story Boldly’s production team composed original music, working to capture specific emotions for each segment of the story, mirroring the soldiers’ journey. The upcoming Berkeley performance holds special significance for Ono: “Berkeley was one of those things that was unreachable and unattainable for me at one point in my life, so now I’m super proud to be there.” Joining Ono at Zellerbach Hall are the gospel-pop group Raise, multi-platinum songwriter and performer Harold Payne, and the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus in combinations with the show’s ensemble, creating what Ono describes as “the biggest sound we’ve ever had.”
“Music is almost like a secret weapon,” Ono says. “You let [the audience] hear the music before you say a single word about that chapter. The music sets up how you’re going to feel.”
While the music helps guide the audience through difficult moments in the story, Ono is mindful of not overwhelming them. “People need relief,” he notes. “You can’t just be downtrodden; you have to uplift people.”
This balance between acknowledging hardship and celebrating triumph resonates for generations of Japanese Americans. For younger people, particularly young Asian Americans, the impact can be profound. “One common comment I get from members of the audience, especially young people who are less familiar with the story, is, ‘I’ve never felt so proud to be an Asian. I’ve never felt so proud to be a Japanese American,’” Ono shares.
The Nisei soldiers’ experience remains deeply relevant today, as America continues to wrestle with questions of identity, loyalty, and belonging—themes that Cal Performances aims to investigate as part of its Illuminations: “Fractured History” series, of which this production is a part. These segregated units fought against Hitler’s regime even as their own families were confined in US incarceration camps.
“This is an American story,” Ono insists. “These guys were great heroes. They could not have done what they did without immense courage… We all have those moments when we’re tested, when we need to speak up, when we need to face something that’s extremely difficult. And I think about these guys and how courageous they were, running up the hill with bullets flying, their families incarcerated, knowing that they may not survive this, but it’s for the greater good.”
As Story Boldly’s Defining Courage comes to UC Berkeley, Ono hopes it will contribute to making the Nisei soldier story as widely known as other celebrated chapters of American military history. He notes that Hollywood has avoided telling this story for eight decades despite its extraordinary military significance, believing Asian faces wouldn’t draw audiences, according to Ono. “It needs to be studied,” Ono emphasizes. “It’s one of the greatest military stories we’ve ever heard of.”
Beyond the historical significance though, he also sees it as an inspiration for students to explore their own family histories. “Even though this is a story about Japanese Americans, the value of learning the previous generation’s story is immense,” he says. “For students out there, their own personal story probably has tremendous drama in it, if they interview their parents, interview their grandparents… They’ll find similarities. They’ll find equal drama. They’ll find tragedy. They’ll find beautiful ways that their ancestors have overcome and searched for the American dream.”
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Cal Performances presents Story Boldly’s Defining Courage at Zellerbach Hall on Friday, April 4 at 8pm. Following the performance, creator David Ono will participate in an Illuminations: “Fractured History” panel discussion entitled “The Legacy of Nisei Soldiers, Storytelling, and the Fight for Justice,” moderated by Michael Omi, professor emeritus of UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies. The talk is free and open to all ticket holders that evening.
