Growing up on a Hawaiian plantation with other Japanese-Americans in the 1930s, young Sam Hamada trains in the martial arts of his native Japan. In California, he meets his extended family, and the beautiful Keiko. But as Sam and Keiko+s love blooms, she is forced to return to Japan and Sam+s family and friends have been interred in camps throughout the U.S. Sam+s knowledge of Japanese sparks the U.S. Army+s interest and he is sent on a secret military mission to Japan where he is truly caught between cultures. From the tragedies of the camps to the bombing of Hiroshima, where Sam+s mother and siblings still live, Sam must navigate a world where his very identity both puts his life at risk yet gives him the strength to survive. This is a riveting epic about a boy in search of manhood, a girl in search of truth, and two peoples divided by war....

Raised in Japan and Hawaii, Sam Hamada has been trained in the ways of the samurai. After graduation Sam strikes out for California and falls in love for the first time, with a beautiful young woman named Keiko. But then the Japanese attack Peal Harbor, igniting the war and making Sam, Keiko, and their families enemies of the state.

Drafted into the U.S. Army, sent on a secret mission, Sam’s very identity both puts his life at risk and gives him the strength he needs to survive. Taking us from the lush Hawaiian Islands of the 1930s to the wartime world of madness in Hiroshima, Color of the Sea is the unforgettable story of one Japanese boy’s coming-of-age....