0/5

Dateline: Sept 24

50 years on from the Vietnam War, a Japanese American veteran searches for the soldier who saved his life when US army soldiers mistook him for the enemy.

This week on Dateline

Fifty years on from the Vietnam War, a Japanese American veteran searches for the soldier who saved his life when US army soldiers mistook him for the enemy.

As a Japanese-American fighting in the Vietnam War, Bruce Nakashima experienced a conflict of identity during the war that was made worse after he lost contact with his best friend.

vvvThere are moments from the Vietnam War that haunt Bruce Nakashima — moments he hasn’t spoken of in the decades since he returned home.

He’ll never forget the terror he felt in a helicopter, in 1966, wounded and weak, as he watched his fellow American soldiers throw Vietnamese prisoners to their deaths.

“I remember I was getting kind of weak, and I looked over at LV to make sure he was breathing, but he wasn’t conscious for a while,” Bruce recalled, referring to his friend LV Hendking who was wounded alongside him.

Bruce and LV were taken to hospital but separated shortly after the incident — it took them more than 50 years to find each other again.

9:30pm Tuesday on SBS.

Leave a Reply

Celebrating 50 Years since Countdown 1974 - 1987