Using Wayne's story as its spine, Sumo East and West tells the broader story of the culture clash between East and West seen through the prism of sumo, including sumo's role in Commodore Perry's opening of Japan in 1851; in the influx of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii at the turn of the 19th century; and in the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II; and in Japan's complex love-hate relationship with American pop culture in the postwar period.
A principal focus is the state of sumo today, as the sport fights for relevance in modern Japan, while aficionados in the US are busily transforming it into Westernized form for tournaments in Las Vegas casinos and hoping for its inclusion in the Olympic Games.
In addition to Akebono, the film also features interviews with two other Hawaii-born superstars of pro sumo who were at the forefront of the controversial transformation of the sport: Konishiki and Jesse "Takamiyama" Kuhaulua.
Also featured are Emmanuel Yarborough of New Jersey, the 1995 World Amateur Sumo Champion and—at 750 lbs, the largest athlete in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records; Henry "Sentoryu" Miller of St. Louis, Missouri, the only African-American to reach the top division of pro sumo; and Judge Katsugo Miho of Hawaii, a veteran of the fabled all-nisei 442d Regimental Combat Team who helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp and later negotiated the way for the first Hawaiian wrestlers to enter pro sumo in Japan.
It was filmed in Super 16 mm in Japan, Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Atlantic City, and funded by ITVS, Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, and the Japan Foundation.