Bushido, then and now    

In the early 90s, my dad made a documentary. It was about his dad, a Japanese major-general, and an unlikely friendship formed between them through the spirit of a samurai sword.  

At the end of WWII, my grandpa, Jack Rinn, was a captain of a destroyer escort ship in the South Pacific. After the Japanese surrendered, he was charged with the turnover of a small island called Truk, which the Japanese had used as a military base. Out of gratitude for how the American soldiers treated the Japanese soldiers, the Japanese general on Truk gave my grandpa his family’s centuries old samurai sword. My grandpa knew this was not a small gesture, so, out of respect, he took it; but he also told himself that, one day, he’d figure out how to find him again and return the sword. What he didn't think about was how difficult it would be to do this. 

My dad, Scott Rinn, grew up listening to my grandpa tell stories about WWII and the samurai sword. So decades later, when he ended up in Japan on business, he made some inquires about the general. It was a long shot, he knew, but maybe he could find him. Miraculously, he did. Minoru Kohata was alive and lived in Abiko, north of Tokyo. My dad arranged for the sword to be shipped back to Kohata and his family, from my grandpa’s house in Oklahoma, where it had been tucked away in a closet waiting for decades to be returned to its owner.

The documentary my dad made about this story was initially called “With Love and Respect,” after the salutation Kohata used in letters to my grandpa after the sword was returned: "With Love and Respect to an Old Fellow Soldier," he wrote. In the film, describing his feelings about the sword’s return, Kohata says it was like seeing a long lost family member return from the dead. His entire family celebrated their unexpected good fortune, and this important symbol of their heritage. Though they had met only once, my grandpa and Kohata wrote to each other that they felt they had known each other their entire lives.

Before my grandpa died in 1994, Kohata surprised him with a visit to Oklahoma. The two men who had met as enemies more than 40 years earlier even played a round of golf together. There’s footage of them on a putting green, at sunset. Kohata is tending the flag while my grandpa puts and misses; they share a heartfelt laugh. Then my grandpa tends the flag for Kohata. It’s the simplest moment shared between these men, but it's also profound. Symbolically, you’re watching love and respect triumph over war. 

The film screened at Angelika Film Center in New York City on October 3, 1993, and it won an educational honor. I know these outward symbols were meaningful to my dad, but I also know that what mattered to him more was just that he made the film: to honor his father's legacy, to honor Kohata's legacy, and to share their inspiring story with the world. 

In time, my dad converted the film from VHS copies to DVDs, re-titled it "Bushido" for better marketing purposes, and gave it a more modern score. But before he made it into a digital file to stream online, both my father and "Bushido" director Bob Richards passed away. And so today, my family and I are so proud to give the film new life here. We'll always remember it first as "With Love and Respect," because they are the qualities my grandpa and Kohata cherished most in each other, and they are also the qualities my own dad lived with every day.