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THE OATH OF THE SWORD (1914)

The Oath of the Sword (1914) (aka Katana, Oath of the Sword)
Production Company: Japanese American Film Company. Distribution Company: Sawyer Film Mart. Director: Frank Shaw. Scenario: Edwin M. La Roche. Cast: Tomi Morri (Masao), Hisa Numa (Hisa), Yutaka Abe [as “Jack Y. Abe”] (Hisa’s brother), Kohano Akashi (Gombei). Transfer Note: Scanned from a 35mm print (16 fps) preserved by the George Eastman Museum and the Japanese American National Museum. New Music: Michael Mortilla. Running Time: 31 minutes.

The Oath of the Sword, a three-reel feature added to the National Film Registry in 2025, is the earliest surviving film produced by Asian Americans. It dates from a short but heroic period when Japanese and Chinese Americans created production companies to create movies about and for their own communites. The film was announced in the July 25, 1914 issue of Motion Picture News:

The Japanese-American Film Company, with offices in Los Angeles, and distributing exchanges...

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