S1.E6 ∙ 2005

Jeremy Hardy follows the International Solidarity Movement and their activities in the Occupied West Bank, Palestine. The courage and determination of those who risk everything to help the Palestinian people is tested.

Three veterans of African American decent discuss the reality of all American wars

A Tradition of Honor is an 82-minute documentary that follows the story of the legendary Japanese American World War II units: the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 100th Battalion, and the Military Intelligence Service. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many people saw Japanese Americans as the enemy. The government reinforced this belief when it forced 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast into internment camps. A Tradition of Honor follows the journey of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team from Hawaii and the internment camps as they fight the Nazis from Italy and into France where they successfully rescued the Lost Battalion; one of the ten most significant battles in US history. In one of the more ironic chapters of the war, soldiers who had family members still in the internment camps, help liberate survivors of the Holocaust in the concentration camps at Dachau. In the Pacific Theatre, Japanese Americans serving in the Military Intelligence Service provided information to General MacArthur that surpassed any in the history of military conflict. But their success in the field of battle would be tempered by what they encountered during the reconstruction of Japan. A Tradition of Honor is the story of a generation of Americans whose patriotism in the face of racial prejudice would forever redefine what it means to be an American.

"Call to Arms" is the story of how the new American nation faced the daunting task of creating an army to do battle with the world's most feared military of the 18th century. In America before the Revolution each county was expected to train and maintain a militia to be called on in defense of the colony. In Virginia, as more and more colonists declared for independence, the last British governor disbanded the militias. The colonists then formed Independent Companies, which were soon transformed into a more professional army. "Call to Arms" explores the creation of this citizen army through the eyes of a young recruit. Students will share his view of life in a military encampment, experience the basics of 18th century drill, and learn about the weapons he used. The will meet the Ethopian Company, a regiment of black slaves who fought for the British.

Documentary depiction of the cultural and social forces which led the world to war in the 1930s and 1940s, beginning with the rise of Hitler after the failure of the victors of the First World War to create fertile ground for lasting peace. The march to war results in a global cataclysm which is depicted in all its variations, until final victory in the Second World War once again leaves the world unprepared to master peace.