Stage In Development
Genre drama, history
The untold story of the sole Japanese-American interpreter at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal — who spent two years ensuring that both sides heard what the other was actually saying, when neither side wanted to.
HENRY TARO NAKATA, 28, was born in Sacramento, interned at Manzanar at 16, and volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service at 19. By 25 he was fluent in three Japanese dialects and assigned to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. THE INTERPRETER covers the two years of the Tribunal — not as courtroom drama but as a portrait of a man who belongs to neither of the worlds in the room, whose job is fidelity to meaning in a proceeding where both sides are choosing their words very carefully. The film is based on recently declassified MIS records and the personal diary of a real interpreter whose identity has been kept from the historical record at his family's request — we have their cooperation.
Director Kenji Tanaka
Producer Lisa Huang
Writer Kenji Tanaka