We Are Moving Stories: Interview with David Brodie
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.
