While the film is a dramatic narrative, it is based on true events and depicts life inside the internment camps, where baseball was one of the major diversions from the reality of the internees' lives.

The viewer sees some actual footage of Topaz War Relocation Center, shot by Dave Tatsuno, using a camera which had been smuggled into the camp.

Lane Nomura, the oldest son enlists in the Army, as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed "Purple Heart Battalion".

One guard, originally condemning the very idea of letting Japanese Americans into "our Army", changes his mind as he sees a list of men from Topaz who had been killed while rescuing a Texas battalion.

[2] Jeff Vice of Deseret News wrote "The historical elements -- particularly those that deal with Japanese internment camps during World War II -- definitely make the movie worthwhile".