The first thing I said this morning was 'Happy Birthday Daddy,'" said Karen Korematsu.

At the Arizona Memorial, eight years after his death, decades after his fight began, the first public showing of a documentary about her father, Fred Korematsu.

"You're not an American, and I thought that was wrong," said Korematsu in the documentary called "Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story."

Korematsu was 23 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

He and 120,000 other Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps.

"But my father’s way of patriotism was showing what was right," said Karen Korematsu.

Fighting internment from day one, Korematsu carried his case all the way to the Supreme Court.

He lost that challenge in 1944, but was vindicated in 1983 by an apology to interned Japanese-Americans from the U.S. government.

In 1998, Korematsu was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian medal in the country.

"The students really caught on to the story and don't be afraid to stand up," said Waialua teacher Mary Chun.