. >> reporter: george iwasaki never lost faith in american, even when america had no faith in him.arbor in 1941, the u.s. government ordered 120,000 japanese, more than half of them american citizens, to internment camps. what did you think when you heard that news? >> i didn't believe it. i was an american. i thought. >> reporter: he was 16, in high school, in a seattle suburb. he spent two years in three different camps. the day he turned 18, he volunteered to go to war. jimmy kanaya was already in the army. >> people would be looking at us because we wore the uniform of our country, yet, we looked like the enemy. >> reporter: kanaya and iwasasi joined the 442nd, made of up thousands of japanese americans. they were sent to europe to fight the germans. jimmy kanaya was captured and spent 18 months as a p.o.w. the 442nd won freedom for strangers, while their families were locked up back home. >> we had to go forward to prove ourselves so that we will be free when we get back. >> reporter: but the battle was not over when they returned. george tried selling flowers in seattle. >> i