Please join the VMCA for a free screening of The Volunteer, a 35 minute documentary, on Saturday, April 20 at 2:00 PM.
The film tells the story of Bruce Nakashima, a Veteran of the Vietnam War, and his close but unlikely friendship with L.V. Hendking, a soldier from Birmingham, Alabama, who eventually saved Bruce’s life, before they were separated and lost contact.
The Volunteer follows Bruce’s fifty-year search for LV, with intimate, heartwarming, and occasionally hilarious asides and revelations. It explores the power of friendship and loyalty, the weight of family expectations, and the complexities of American identity as Bruce struggles to overcome his guilt, anger, and shame, and to find a sense of belonging.
“The Volunteer is a heartbreaking exploration into the devastating, life-long psychological impact of repressed racial trauma, as endured by a Japanese-American soldier maneuvering the multi-faceted realities of American anti-Asian racism during the Vietnam War. It is also a stirring tribute to the cross-racial bonds of military brotherhood forged in the shared anguish of racial oppression.”
-- Kelly H. Chong, Ph.D. Professor and Chairperson, Department of Sociology, University of Kansas
"The Volunteer is the moving and beautifully rendered story of two men from different worlds who were brutally tested and forever bound by the crucible of war."
- Prof. Peter Maguire, Author: Law and War, Facing Death in Cambodia, Thai Stick, and Breathe (New York Times bestseller)
“The pain in The Volunteer is capturing the unforgivable realities of war, things that hurt any combat Veteran to the marrow. The joy is realizing, from Bruce Nakashima's experiences, that I am neither a criminal nor am I a victim.”
--Francisco Juarez, Vietnam Veteran; Commander of the El Camino Real Chapter of the American GI Forum of the US.
"The Volunteer" screening
Showing date: Sat. April 20th, 2pm
Location: VFW 3261, 1822 W. 162nd St. Gardena, CA 90247
No admission fee, free to everyone
RSVP please. You may +1 extra person to each RSVP.
For more than 2, please fill out additional RSVP.
RSVP closes on April 17, 2024
The event is sponsored by Veterans Memorial Court Alliance (main sponsor), Gardena VFW Post 3261, Kazuo Masuda VFW Post 3670, Gardena Nisei VFW post 1961, AACoMP.