90 Minutes • Documentary • High School - Adult (DVD - Personal Use)

Produced and Directed by Loni Ding, 1989

The Color of Honor portrays the complex variety of responses of Japanese American men during WWII. While reviled and interned in their home country for their ethnic heritage, they were also confronted with the rise of fascism abroad.

Some wanted to prove they were loyal Americans and fought bravely in the highly decorated all Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Unit, which liberated European towns, even while their own families were virtually imprisoned in internment camps.

Others served as secret Military Intelligence linguists using their deep understanding of the Japanese language to interrogate prisoners of war and intercept messages in the Asian Pacific theater of the war.

And some felt they could not in good conscience serve in the U.S. Armed Forces as long as their families were "interned" in violation of the Constitution they were supposed to defend.