Media Kit

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, these young Americans found their loyalty questioned by the very nation they were prepared to defend. They stood at the center of an extraordinary contradiction: America was fighting the tyranny of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan while struggling with racism, prejudice and incarceration at home.

Given the opportunity to serve, they responded with extraordinary courage and sacrifice. The 100th suffered such devastating casualties that war correspondents dubbed it the “Purple Heart Battalion,” while the combined 100th/442nd became one of the most decorated units in U.S. military history.

Told through firsthand accounts from WWII veterans and their descendants, archival materials, and leading military and historical experts, the film retraces their journey from Hawaiʻi through the battlefields of Italy and France and the advance of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion into Germany—bringing new clarity and nuance to a history too often misunderstood, oversimplified or left untold.

But THE 100TH goes beyond the battlefield.

Known in Europe as “The Hawaiians,” these soldiers carried something from home beyond their weapons and training: the spirit of aloha. Through courage, loyalty, humility, service and care for others, they planted seeds of human connection amid some of the darkest circumstances imaginable.

More than 80 years later, those seeds are still growing. French communities continue honoring their liberators. Families separated by thousands of miles remain connected across generations. The descendants of soldiers and civilians continue friendships that began during war. Stories of compassion have survived alongside stories of combat.

And the soldiers continued planting seeds when they came home.

Veterans pursued education, built businesses and institutions, served their communities, fought discrimination and helped transform Hawaiʻi’s civic and political landscape. Some entered the very institutions of government that had once questioned their loyalty. Others extended aloha across the Pacific through postwar relief and reconciliation. Through eight decades of service, the veterans and generations they inspired helped open doors for others and build a freer world.

Their story reveals a larger truth at the heart of the film:

A country can fall short of its ideals while its people still choose to embody them.

The men of the 100th/442nd did more than fight for America as it was. Through their actions during the war and their lives afterward, they helped demonstrate what America could become.

Producer/writer/director Steve Sue is joined by a creative team including cinematographer Alexander Bocchieri, editor Deborah Miller, music directors Harold Payne and David Kopatz, and animator Karen Brizendine. Music plays an integral role in the storytelling, with 18 original songs composed during the production journey through Europe, inspired by the soldiers, places and stories encountered along the way.

More than 80 years later, THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha asks two questions that reach far beyond WWII:

What survives war?

What do we do when our country falls short of the ideals we still believe in?

The story of the 100th/442nd offers an extraordinary answer: embody those ideals—and work to make them real.

Their battles ended long ago.

The seeds they planted are still growing.

See Full Synopsis »

A country can fall short of its ideals while its people still choose to embody them.

During World War II, America fought against tyranny and oppression abroad while struggling with racism and prejudice at home. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans of Japanese ancestry suddenly found their loyalty questioned. On the mainland, more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated, most of them U.S. citizens.

Against this backdrop, thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry stepped forward to serve their country.

For the men of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, this was not simply a story of trying to prove they were Americans. As veterans have repeatedly reminded later generations, they already knew they were Americans. They served the country that was theirs—with courage, loyalty and an extraordinary willingness to sacrifice.

Their journey would take them across some of the most difficult battlefields of Europe. They fought in Italy, France and Germany, suffering devastating casualties while becoming part of one of the most decorated American military units of World War II.

But the deeper story did not end when the fighting stopped.

The veterans returned home carrying lessons forged through discrimination, war, sacrifice and service. Many continued serving their communities—not only as veterans, but as educators, public servants, professionals, civic leaders and advocates for greater equality and opportunity.

In Hawaiʻi, their generation helped reshape the social and political landscape. Nationally, veterans and their contemporaries became part of the broader effort to challenge discrimination and expand civil rights.

That is one of the central contradictions explored in THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha:

America did not always live up to its ideals. Yet these men chose to live those ideals anyway.

Their legacy is therefore larger than what they accomplished on the battlefield. Their story asks what happens when people respond to prejudice not by abandoning the principles of their country, but by helping the country more fully become what those principles promised.

It began with a map at Pearl Harbor.

At Pearl Harbor, a remarkable map traces the wartime journey of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team across America and Europe.

What begins in Hawaiʻi stretches thousands of miles—from training camps on the mainland to battlefields across Italy and France, and ultimately into Germany.

The map transforms history into something you can see. Place by place, battle by battle, it reveals the extraordinary distance traveled by young Americans of Japanese ancestry who left Hawaiʻi to fight for their country.

USA: Pearl Harbor, HI • Camp McCoy, WI • Camp Shelby, MS
ITALY: Salerno • Volturno • Monte Cassino • Anzio • Belvedere • Gothic Line
FRANCE: Bruyères • Biffontaine • LʻEscarene
GERMANY: Mertingen • Dachau

More than a record of military movements, the map became a roadmap for THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha—connecting the places where history happened with the people and communities who still carry its memory today.

One map. Thousands of miles. A story that began in Hawaiʻi and reached across the world.

Mapping the Journey

At Pearl Harbor, descendants of the men of the 100th/442nd gathered around a massive 6,000-square-foot map tracing their journey from Hawaiʻi across the battlefields of Europe.

Families stepped onto the map and placed medallions at the places where fathers, grandfathers, uncles and loved ones had fought, fallen, formed friendships and shared aloha. Suddenly, military history became personal—each place connected to a name, a family and a story.

Veterans’ organizations and historians helped reconcile routes, dates and events, bringing decades of collective memory together on a single landscape.

The gathering also became an important foundation for THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha. Against the map, the filmmakers recorded 27 interviews, capturing stories from descendants and others entrusted with preserving the legacy.

Throughout the film, the map returns as a visual touchstone—connecting individual memories to the larger journey of the 100th/442nd and showing how one generation’s path across the world continues to resonate more than 80 years later.

6,000-SQUARE-FOOT MAP • 1,200+ PARTICIPANTS • 4 COUNTRIES

This was our Ground Zero—the place where thousands of miles of history became one shared story.

Following a 2,000-Mile Journey

The map at Pearl Harbor showed us where the men had gone. The next step was to follow them.

The filmmakers traveled across Europe, retracing more than 2,000 miles of the 100th/442nd’s wartime journey through Italy, France and Germany—returning to battlefields, mountain passes, liberated towns and communities where their legacy remains alive more than 80 years later.

But the journey became about much more than finding the places where history happened.

Along the way, the team met historians, descendants, local families and community members who have spent generations preserving the stories of these Americans of Japanese ancestry. Some still honor the soldiers who liberated their towns. Others preserve friendships that began during the war and have been passed from parents to children and grandchildren.

More than 40 interviews captured these memories and revealed something unexpected: the soldiers’ journey did not end when they moved on to the next battlefield. In many places, relationships they formed and acts of humanity they left behind continued to grow.

The journey also became the creative birthplace of the film’s music, with 18 original songs composed along the way, inspired by the people, places and stories the team encountered.

The filmmakers went to Europe following the footsteps of soldiers. They came home following the seeds of aloha.

4 COUNTRIES • 40+ INTERVIEWS • 2,000+ MILES • 18 ORIGINAL SONGS

Questioned at home. Tested in battle. Remembered for extraordinary courage.

The 100th Infantry Battalion entered combat in Italy in 1943. Fighting through some of the war’s most difficult campaigns, the unit suffered such devastating casualties that it became known as the “Purple Heart Battalion.”

When the 442nd Regimental Combat Team arrived in Europe, the battle-tested 100th became its 1st Battalion. Together, the men of the 100th/442nd carried forward a motto that captured their determination: “Go For Broke.”

Their courage was tested repeatedly—from the mountains of Italy to the forests of France. In the Vosges, the 100th/442nd fought through brutal terrain and fierce resistance to rescue the surrounded “Lost Battalion,” 211 soldiers of the 36th Texas Division. The rescue came at tremendous cost.

The war eventually carried members of the unit into Germany. Soldiers of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion encountered and aided survivors of the Dachau concentration camp system and its forced death marches—bringing them face-to-face with the human consequences of the tyranny America had gone to war to defeat.

By war’s end, the men of the 100th/442nd had accumulated an extraordinary record of battlefield valor and sacrifice, becoming one of the most decorated units in U.S. military history.

They fought for a country that questioned their loyalty—and left a record that could not be questioned.

The war ended. What they carried with them did not.

The men of the 100th/442nd carried something across the battlefields of Europe that could not be measured in medals or military victories.

They carried values shaped by home—courage, loyalty, humility, service and care for others. In Hawaiʻi, we recognize many of these values as expressions of aloha.

And wherever they went, they left something behind.

They helped liberate towns and formed friendships with people they had come to save. They shared what little they had, brought Christmas to children surrounded by war, and created human connections that survived long after the armies moved on.

These were the seeds of aloha.

When the soldiers returned home, they continued planting them. Veterans helped send relief to Okinawa, built businesses and institutions, entered public service, challenged discrimination, expanded opportunity and became leaders in their communities.

Over the next eight decades, those seeds took root in ways the young soldiers could never have imagined. Friendships became traditions. Acts of kindness became lasting relationships. Communities in Hawaiʻi, Italy, France and Germany continued remembering, honoring and passing their stories to new generations.

THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha looks beyond what these men accomplished in war to ask what they left behind in peace.

Their battles ended long ago. The seeds they planted are still growing.

When the battles end and generations pass, what remains?

War leaves behind dates, places, monuments and memories. But its deepest legacies can be harder to see.

For the men of the 100th/442nd—and for the people whose lives they touched across Europe—what endured was more than a record of military achievement.

Courage.
To move forward despite fear and uncertainty.

Friendship.
Bonds formed across cultures, languages and oceans.

Service.
A commitment to others that continued long after the uniform came off.

Sacrifice.
What was given for country, family and generations yet to come.

Human connection.
Moments of compassion powerful enough to outlive the circumstances that created them.

And across generations, something still being passed forward:

Aloha.

Steve Sue

Steve Sue is a Hawaiʻi filmmaker, designer and social entrepreneur, and Chair of the nonprofit ID8, home of the Global Aloha movement.

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Steve is Chinese American and a descendant of Chinese immigrants who passed through Angel Island. A graduate of UCLA Design and UC Berkeley School of Law, he spent much of his career as a designer and entrepreneur before turning his focus to filmmaking and social impact.

Steve produced and wrote the award-winning documentary SHAKA, A Story of Aloha, an exploration of the origins, meanings and values behind Hawaiʻi’s iconic gesture. That journey deepened his interest in a larger question: Can aloha be more than a cultural ideal? Can it become a way of acting in the world?

That question led to THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha, Steve’s feature directorial debut.

Following the story of the 100th/442nd from Hawaiʻi across the battlefields of Europe—and discovering the relationships and acts of aloha that survived for generations—changed his understanding of what these veterans had been saying all along.

“The vets were right. Aloha really can change the world.”

“They did not go to war to prove they were Americans. They already knew they were Americans.”

I began this film wanting to understand what drove the men of the 100th/442nd to such extraordinary courage. They fought for a country that questioned their loyalty, while many of their families and fellow Americans of Japanese ancestry faced prejudice and incarceration at home.

But the deeper I followed their story, the more I realized this was about something larger than war.

These men carried values into battle that had been instilled long before they put on a uniform—courage, loyalty, humility, sacrifice, service and care for others. In Hawaiʻi, we recognize those values as expressions of aloha.

Across Europe, they planted those values through their actions: in the communities they helped liberate, the friendships they formed, the people they cared for and the humanity they showed amid extraordinary brutality.

And when they came home, the planting continued. For more than 80 years, veterans and the generations that followed have cultivated those seeds through service, leadership, friendship and the pursuit of greater equality.

That became the story I wanted to tell.

Not only what these men did in war, but what they left behind in peace.

Their story asks a question that still matters today: What survives war—and how do we choose to live our ideals when our country falls short of them?

For more, see Filmmaker’s Statement »

A collaborative team brings history to life through image, story, music and animation.

THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha was created by a team of filmmakers and artists committed to making an 80-year-old story feel immediate, human and alive.

Steve Sue — Executive Producer, Producer, Writer & Director
Guides the film’s creative vision and its exploration of how the values carried by the 100th/442nd continued to shape lives long after World War II.

Alexander Bocchieri — Cinematographer, Co-Producer & Co-Editor
Captured the film’s journey across Hawaiʻi and Europe, connecting historic battlefields with the people, landscapes and communities that preserve their stories today.

Deborah Miller — Editor
Shapes more than eight decades of history, personal testimony and contemporary storytelling into a cohesive emotional journey.

Harold Payne & David Kopatz — Music Directors & Composers
Created an extraordinary musical dimension for the film, composing 18 original songs, many written during the production journey through Europe and inspired by the people, places and stories encountered along the way.

Karen Brizendine — Animator
Brings archival photographs and historical moments to life through animation, helping connect the past with the film’s contemporary journey.

Together, the team combines documentary filmmaking, archival storytelling, original music and visual artistry to tell a story that reaches beyond the battlefield.

18 original songs. Four countries. One shared vision.

Composed across Europe. Inspired by the journey.

The music of THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha was created alongside the film itself.

During production in Italy, France and Germany, Music Directors Harold Payne and David Kopatz traveled with the filmmaking team, experiencing the battlefields, meeting the people and hearing the stories that still live in these communities more than 80 years later.

Those experiences became music.

Along the way, Harold and David composed 18 original songs, transforming moments from the journey into a soundtrack of courage, sacrifice, friendship, loss and aloha. Rather than simply accompanying the film, the songs became another way of telling its story—giving emotional voice to experiences that history alone cannot always express.

The soundtrack also features additional vocal performances by Frances Quinlan and Brian Yamamoto.

18 songs. Inspired by the places where history happened—and the people who keep its memory alive.

HEAR THE MUSIC: 100thfilm.org/songs

Stories exploring how the spirit of aloha can help people and communities flourish. THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha is part of an expanding series of films exploring aloha—not simply as a greeting or symbol of Hawaiʻi, but as a set of values expressed through the ways people live, serve, connect and care for one another.

SHAKA, A Story of Aloha — Released
The story behind Hawaiʻi’s iconic gesture and the values of friendship, compassion and connection it carries around the world.
shakafilm.org

THE 100TH, Seeds of Aloha — 2027
The extraordinary story of Americans of Japanese ancestry who carried aloha through the battlefields of World War II—and planted seeds that continue growing more than 80 years later.
100thfilm.org

ʻONO, Foods of Aloha — In Development
An exploration of Hawaiʻi’s remarkable food culture and how generations of people from around the world shared ingredients, traditions and ideas to create something uniquely Hawaiʻi.
onofilm.org

Together, the films explore aloha through gesture, service, sacrifice, food, culture and human connection—different stories connected by a common question: How can the spirit of aloha help people and communities flourish?

The Aloha Film Series is part of Global Aloha, an ID8 movement sharing and activating the spirit of aloha through film, education, community programs and action.

FILMS THAT INSPIRE • STORIES THAT CONNECT • ALOHA IN ACTION

Genre: Feature Documentary

RunTime: 97 min 45 sec

Produced by: ID8 501(c)(3) Nonprofit, Hawaiʻi, USA

Release Year: 2027

Languages: English/Italian/French

Primary Language: English

Closed Captions: English

Subtitles: Italian, French, German, Japanese

Aspect ratio: 16:9

Resolution: UHD 4K

Sound format: Stereo

Available Formats: DCP, ProRes upon request

Copyright: ©2027 ID8. All Rights Reserved.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1097138538/4eca0b8c2d

Official Stills: https://100thfilm.org/free-use/

Key Art/Poster: https://100thfilm.org/free-use/

Director Headshot: https://100thfilm.org/team/

Filmmaker Bios: https://100thfilm.org/team/

Full Synopsis: https://100thfilm.org/logline/

Credits: https://100thfilm.org/team/

Press Contact: Steve Sue, steve@id8.org +1 (808) 220-6449