A sweeping novel of history, war and courage in the face of injustice, Tears of Honor tells the story of the heroic Japanese American soldiers who fought against Nazi tyranny in Europe, while their families were imprisoned in America. Sammy and Freddy are two all-American boys in the summer of 1941, dreaming of becoming professional baseball players and maybe asking a girl to the senior prom. But when war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans. Taken from their homes in rural central California and placed in internment camps, the boys decide that the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the real-life historical architects of the Japanese internment order) wage a bureaucratic war to persuade the government to give legal sanction to their plans to detain the Japanese population. Skillfully using legal argument, racist paranoia and media pressure, DeWitt and Bendetson persuade President Roosevelt to acquiesce to detentions. At Ford Ord in Monterey, California, Private Young Oak Kim (another real historical personage) wants to get out of the motor pool and into a fighting unit, but the prewar army has little use for Korean Americans. Now the war will take Kim to officer training and combat. In Europe, Sammy, Freddy, Yuki and Tug are placed under the command of newly commissioned Lieutenant Kim, who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war (which led to Kim becoming one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history). Sammy, Freddy and their comrades confront the prejudice of white soldiers and the horrors of combat, as they come to realize they are fighting not just for the United States, but for the honor of all Japanese Americans.

A sweeping novel of history, war and courage in the face of injustice, Tears of Honor tells the story of the heroic Japanese American soldiers who fought against Nazi tyranny in Europe, while their families were imprisoned in America. Sammy and Freddy are two all-American boys in the summer of 1941, dreaming of becoming professional baseball players and maybe asking a girl to the senior prom. But when war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans. Taken from their homes in rural central California and placed in internment camps, the boys decide that the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the real-life historical architects of the Japanese internment order) wage a bureaucratic war to persuade the government to give legal sanction to their plans to detain the Japanese population. Skillfully using legal argument, racist paranoia and media pressure, DeWitt and Bendetson persuade President Roosevelt to acquiesce to detentions. At Ford Ord in Monterey, California, Private Young Oak Kim (another real historical personage) wants to get out of the motor pool and into a fighting unit, but the prewar army has little use for Korean Americans. Now the war will take Kim to officer training and combat. In Europe, Sammy, Freddy, Yuki and Tug are placed under the command of newly commissioned Lieutenant Kim, who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war (which led to Kim becoming one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history). Sammy, Freddy and their comrades confront the prejudice of white soldiers and the horrors of combat, as they come to realize they are fighting not just for the United States, but for the honor of all Japanese Americans.

A sweeping novel of history, war and courage in the face of injustice, Tears of Honor tells the story of the heroic Japanese American soldiers who fought against Nazi tyranny in Europe, while their families were imprisoned in America. Sammy and Freddy are two all-American boys in the summer of 1941, dreaming of becoming professional baseball players and maybe asking a girl to the senior prom. But when war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans. Taken from their homes in rural central California and placed in internment camps, the boys decide that the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the real-life historical architects of the Japanese internment order) wage a bureaucratic war to persuade the government to give legal sanction to their plans to detain the Japanese population. Skillfully using legal argument, racist paranoia and media pressure, DeWitt and Bendetson persuade President Roosevelt to acquiesce to detentions. At Ford Ord in Monterey, California, Private Young Oak Kim (another real historical personage) wants to get out of the motor pool and into a fighting unit, but the prewar army has little use for Korean Americans. Now the war will take Kim to officer training and combat. In Europe, Sammy, Freddy, Yuki and Tug are placed under the command of newly commissioned Lieutenant Kim, who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war (which led to Kim becoming one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history). Sammy, Freddy and their comrades confront the prejudice of white soldiers and the horrors of combat, as they come to realize they are fighting not just for the United States, but for the honor of all Japanese Americans.