Tears of Honor
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 the war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga, and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans.

In San Francisco and Washington, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the actual 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.

As the Miyaki and Shiraga families are taken from their homes and placed in internment camps, Sammy and Freddy decide the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army.

Assigned to an all Japanese American combat unit fighting against the Germans, Sammy and Freddy are placed under the command of the combat-hardened Lieutenant Young Oak Kim (a real-life person and one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history), who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war. 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.

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Tears of Honor
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 the war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga, and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans.

In San Francisco and Washington, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the actual 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.

As the Miyaki and Shiraga families are taken from their homes and placed in internment camps, Sammy and Freddy decide the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army.

Assigned to an all Japanese American combat unit fighting against the Germans, Sammy and Freddy are placed under the command of the combat-hardened Lieutenant Young Oak Kim (a real-life person and one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history), who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war. 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.

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Tears of Honor

Tears of Honor

by James A. Ardaiz
Tears of Honor
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Tears of Honor

Tears of Honor

by James A. Ardaiz

Overview

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 the war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga, and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans.

In San Francisco and Washington, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the actual 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.

As the Miyaki and Shiraga families are taken from their homes and placed in internment camps, Sammy and Freddy decide the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army.

Assigned to an all Japanese American combat unit fighting against the Germans, Sammy and Freddy are placed under the command of the combat-hardened Lieutenant Young Oak Kim (a real-life person and one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history), who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781610359009
Publisher: Linden Publishing
Publication date: 02/16/2021
Pages: 480
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

James A. Ardaiz is a former prosecutor, judge, and Presiding Justice of the California Fifth District Court of Appeal. His previous books include Hands Through Stone, a nonfiction account of the investigation and prosecution of murderer Clarence Ray Allen, and the mystery novels Fractured Justice and Shades of Truth.

Read an Excerpt

The Germans began to lay fire down on the hill they were about to ascend. Sammy moved forward, following Yuki and Tug. The sound was overwhelming. Screeching artillery mixed with the pinging sound of ricochets off rocky outcroppings. Sammy saw dirt spray upward as bullets hit the ground in front of him. The ripping sound of machine gun slugs tore the air. He saw the muzzle flash of a machine gun ahead of him. He crawled toward it and reached for a grenade attached to his web gear. He felt the sharp gravel of the hill scraping through his fatigues. He pulled the pin in the grenade, counting before he threw. He didn’t lob it like he had been taught. He threw it like a straight throw from shortstop to first base, hitting the dirt berm in front of the machine gun nest. He watched the grenade bounce up and explode, the brief flash covered by smoke and dirt blowing upward. The gun silenced for a moment and he pushed forward.

For some reason the sharply defined battle sound was gone now. All he heard was a muffled roaring noise. All he could see was the machine gun nest. He stuck his head up to get a better view and felt his head slammed into the ground from behind. He turned his face to the side and saw Yuki moving his lips. It took a moment to separate the sound coming out of Yuki’s mouth from the roar of the battle. “Keep your goddamn head down, Miyaki. Keep moving.”

Interviews

As a student of history and an appellate court judge, I was called upon to give a speech about the failures of the American judicial system. I long regarded Korematsu v United States, addressing the detention of Japanese Americans during WWII, as one of the worst court-endorsed violations of civil rights in American judicial history. However, reading the decision didn’t provide the context of reality in terms of the people affected. I decided to study the circumstances giving rise to the decision and the reasons for the government’s actions. No book I read on the subject provided a reader with the integration of all of the events and participants into one story, allowing the reader to see the role, reasoning, and reaction of each of the major participants and why they did what they did. It left me with a question: Why would young Japanese Americans be willing to lay down their lives for a country that rejected their families because of race? Rather than write a nonfiction account, I decided that a novel carefully adhering to historical accounts would provide a reader with the human impact, emotion and consequences of a story that reveals the greatness of the American dream and the commitment of people who call themselves Americans. Tears of Honor is that novel.

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Related Subjects

Fiction
Historical Fiction
World War II - Historical Fiction
Fiction
Historical Fiction
World War II - Historical Fiction

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