On Tuesday, October 25, 2005, the DGA Asian American Committee (AAC) presented An Evening with Lane Nishikawa at the Guild’s Los Angeles Theatre complex. The evening featured a special screening of Nishikawa’s Only the Brave, the true story of the sacrifices made by Japanese-American soldiers at a time when many of their families were being detained by the very country they fought to serve.

Facing insurmountable odds, the 100th/442nd RCT were able to do what an entire army division could not - break through two regiments of Hitler's elite troops to save over 200 American soldiers at the cost of over 800 casualties of their own. After the screening, the committee hosted a Q&A on the making of Only the Brave with Nishikawa moderated by AAC Co-Chair Ken Wada, who also served as UPM and 1st AD on the film .

An accomplished writer for stage and screen, Nishikawa has written extensively on the topic of the Japanese American experience in WWII. He adapted his play, The Gate of Heaven, which explores the irony of a Japanese American soldier who rescues a Jewish prisoner from the Dachau concentration camp, into his first short 35mm feature, When We Were Warriors. His next film on the related subject matter, Forgotten Valor, won the Best Short Feature Award at the Hawaiian International Film Festival. Only the Brave marks Nishikawa’s feature directing debut, and is the final installment of the thematic trilogy. He also portrays the lead character, Sergeant James Takata.

Nishikawa explained his fascination with the subject. “I had four uncles who served in the 100th/442 and the military intelligence service – the men who fought in the Pacific – and another set of uncles by marriage who served with the 100th/442, so this is very personal to me,” said Nishikawa. “I’m very appreciative of them for what they did during a very tough period of history. I really think that we as Asian Americans so many generations later have a better life because of what they did.”