"The First Battle" documents how, during World War II, 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the U.S. mainland were wrongly interned, while 160,000 people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii were able to go about their lives. The majority, if not all, of Hawaii's residents of Japanese ancestry were targeted to be forced into internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. This documentary reveals that mass internment could very well have occurred if not for a few twists of fate and the foresight and bravery of a small network of men in Hawaii.