Review: These heroic ‘Secret Warriors’ helped America win a war even as they were treated as enemies

What does an American hero look like?

Neither shy California farm boy Koji Kimura nor lippy smart aleck Tamio Takahashiwould fit the typical profile of a champion of freedom.

Yet these brave men — based on real-life Japanese American warriors Roy Matsumoto and Walter Tanaka — prove their mettle in battle in World War II.

Members of an intelligence program that trained citizens in Minnesota to be translators, interpreters and interrogators in the Pacific theater, Kimura and Takahashi headline “Secret Warriors,” R.A. Shiomi’s drama that had its spirited premiere Saturday at St. Paul’s History Theatre.

Years in the making, “Warriors” condenses and fictionalizes the story of the thousands of Japanese Americans who enlisted to serve the United States while living in the most precarious of binds.

On the one hand, they had skills and connections, not to mention ingenuity, grit and courage, to help Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and America, prevail.

On the other hand, they were considered enemies within. Those in uniform had their guns taken away while outside in the world, their families lost their businesses and livelihoods as they were rounded up and sent to internment camps.

As Takahashi (Erik Ohno Dagoberg) asks the recruiting officer: “Why treat us like traitors and then ask us to be patriots?”

Sensitive and contemporary, Shiomi’s script takes us into the lives, loves and wants of these men and the women they met at an extraordinary moment in history. Director Lily Tung Crystal stages “Warriors” with both martial precision and the occasional leavening of a tent revival.

The milieu is readily evoked by Erik Paulson’s set, which features a prominent allied star flanked by wire fences at the upper level and a lower-0tier bare stage that’s given texture and character by Wu Chen Khoo’s lighting design.

The drumbeats, by sound designer Frederick Kennedy, and Kathy Maxwell’s video design all work to transport us into the wartime era.

Tung Crystal has assembled an able cast for “Warriors.” Kudos to Dagoberg, whose impetuous Takahashi matures before our eyes, turning into a steady, heartbreaking hero. Clay Man Soo’s Kimura also comes beautifully out of his shell.

The roles of their love interests are not all that fleshed out but Stephanie Anne Bertumen, who plays Kimura’s girlfriend Natsuko Nishi, and Kendall Kent, who plays Takahashi’s sweetheart Denise Murphy, all bring telescopic skill and heart to their small parts.

Bertumen also choreographs the show and she and Man Soo deliver a gorgeous duet.

“Warriors” boasts a stolid turn by Rich Remedios as a language instructor who, also, is working under a demotion, and Paul LaNave as an understanding white lieutenant in the first act and a less enlightened figure in the second.

On Saturday night, History Theatre leader Rick Thompson shook with righteous passion as he welcomed patrons to his company’s newest show.

“There are those who are trying to take away our stories, but this story must be told,” Thompson said. “People who thought differently came together and that made for innovations in science, technology, philosophy — everything that’s made America great.”

The play has a similar messaging. For the drama testifies to a faith in the nation’s vibrant mosaic, showing threads that celebrate bravery even as the experiences of these “Warriors” attest to America’s poignant, sometimes bittersweet beauty.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends April 19.

Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul.

Tickets: $25-$64. 651-292-4323 or historytheatre.com.