The Veterans Memorial Court Alliance presents a free screening of The Volunteer, a 35 minute documentary at VFW 3261 in Gardena 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” screening
Showing date: Saturday. April 20th, 2pm
Location: VFW 3261, 1822 W. 162nd St. Gardena, CA 90247
No admission fee, free to everyone
RSVP by April 17. You may +1 extra person to each RSVP.
For more than 2, please fill out additional RSVP.
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.
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.
In 1965, Bruce Nakashima met a man who understood him better than anyone else on earth.
Bruce was a Japanese American from California, and LV Hendking was an African American from Alabama, and somehow they clicked immediately. From US Army Ranger training through their deployment in Vietnam, they were inseparable, confiding in each other, protecting each other, and providing a sense of home amidst the horror of war.
Despite this camaraderie, Bruce questioned his role in a fight against people who reminded him of his family. He identified with the Vietnamese people and recoiled at the way they were treated by American soldiers.
In 1966, this tension culminated in what Bruce later called “the incident.” After Bruce and LV were wounded in an ambush, American soldiers assumed Bruce was a member of Viet Cong. They nearly murdered him, but LV intervened, insisting that Bruce was not the enemy, but his friend.
After surgeries in a field operations hospital, Bruce and LV were sedated and shipped to separate facilities. That was the last time they saw each other. In the ensuing decades, Bruce has looked in vain for that sense of belonging and acceptance he found with LV.
THE VOLUNTEER tells the story of Bruce and LV’s fifty-year search for each other, and Bruce’s struggle to come to grips with his guilt, trauma, and anger about the past. It’s a conversation about American identity and the way the powerful exploit prejudice to gain power.
But it’s also about the unbreakable bond between soldiers, and the unlikely support systems that grow around us. More than anything, this is the story of a friendship and what it means to belong.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Bruce Nakashima was a United States Army Ranger, farmer, truck driver, craps dealer, model car wholesaler, and an investor in both racehorses and race cars. He was born in Rohwer, Arkansas during World War II and served in The Vietnam War from 1964 to 1967. In 2018, he decided it was time to tell his story.
In 2017 David Brodie directed an ad campaign for Subaru, promoting the company’s charitable efforts. For one of these commercials he interviewed Bruce, along with Chris Gordon-Clarke, a fellow veteran who delivered food to Bruce through Meals on Wheels.
David became friends with both men, joining Meals on Wheels and regularly meeting with Bruce, who often told stories about his past, including his birth in an internment camp for Japanese Americans, his harrowing service in Vietnam, and his decades-long search for LV Hendking, his best friend from the Army.
These conversations eventually developed into production on an ever-evolving documentary about Bruce’s life. Over three years, Bruce gave countless interviews, reconnected with friends and family, and finally reunited with LV.