and exclusive products that celebrate and honor Japanese American history.

an Oscar nominee for The Bridge on the River Kwai.I grew up surrounded by movie memorabilia and have always admired the portrait of Sugar Torch (the stripper who was murdered in the film) hanging above our mantle.

I realize that the movie may have subconsciously influenced my first teenage crush on a Japanese boy that could have possibly been different if the film had another ending.Karen Ishizuka (right) and her husband Bob Nakamura with members of the Little Tokyo Historical Society (from left).I wasnt able to visit him on set but I was fortunate that he invited me to a few of his award shows.

which was shot on location in Tokyo several years before in 1955.Ishizukas grandparents were active members before and after the war.

Seeing him brought back many memories of when we would go to dinner or he would come over to our house.

Samuel Fullers daughter; Keith Shigeta.who was being treated for his deteriorating health.

her face looking down as her mind gathered an old memory.By BILL WATANABEI had a brother that I never met and never had the chance to get to know as I was growing up.

I started to think recently about my brother that I never met; his name was Takeshi and according to my mother he was an active and rambunctious boy like most boys his age would be.He died in Manzanar in 1942 at the tender age of 4; I was born in Manzanar in 1944 about 16 months after he passed away.