The episode began in 1941 Pearl Harbor with the recollection of a surviving soldier of the time, who was being honored, along with other survivors, on the USS Missouri. McGarrett and Catherine were in attendance.
Following the memorial, McGarrett spotted a man taking a gun out of his pocket, aiming it at the survivor. Afterwards, McGarrett learned the gunman’s name was David Toriyama. He served in Korea and was going to kill the survivor, Ezra Clark, because Clark killed his father and stole a Samurai sword that had been in his father’s family for centuries. Toriyama waited until now to try and kill Clark because it was the only thing he had left. His wife and child had both died over the years, and he did not want to dishonor them while they were still alive.
McGarrett found it odd that the weapon Toriyama carried would have backfired in his own face.
McGarrett felt Toriyama’s story needed to be checked out. Upon investigation, Chin discovered military records showed Toriyama’s father had been killed in May 1943 by a fellow internment camp resident. Danny discovered Clark had a troubled background.
Catherine and McGarrett visited Clark and learned he had no recollection of Toriyama’s father at all. He had also married a Japanese woman and had a daughter by her.
The team could not hold Toriyama on a charge, so they had to let him go. When McGarrett took him back home, he told Toriyama he would look into his case. While at the Toriyama home, McGarrett saw a photo of his grandfather with Toriyama’s father. Toriyama did not know what brought the two together.
Chin located old military records dating back over 120 years. Danny and McGarrett joined him at this location and found some paperwork from the date Toriyama was killed. Part of the main page was missing, but enough was there to read a first name and an initial.
Chin and McGarrett took Toriyama back to the location of the internment camp to see if they could job his memory. He recalled many details, including finding his father’s body with Clark standing over it.
Charlie told the team he was able to identify the signature on the found paperwork as that of George Rigby, a homicide detective. McGarrett and Danny went to Rigby’s home and discovered he had died years before. His daughter showed them papers he had kept while on the force. In the papers, they found a Serious Incident Report from May 24, 1943 that showed James Toriyama as being killed by Joseph Archer, the little brother of a guard at the camp named Albert Archer. Joseph had gone on to commit other crimes and had ended up in Halawa, serving a life sentence. He had died in prison. However, the report revealed that Joseph Archer had used a .38 weapon in crimes he had committed. The team sought to match that weapon to the bullet wound that killed James Toriyama.
Toriyama’s body was exhumed from a Potter’s Field at the camp, and Charlie was able to match the gun to the bullet wound. Through department records, the team was able to find Joseph Archer’s grandson, Thomas. When they visited Thomas, they found the missing sword and returned it to its rightful owner.
They had brought Clark with them to Toriyama’s house, and Toriyama apologized to him.
The episode ended with McGarrett and Toriyama honoring the USS Arizona. Toriyama told McGarrett he remembered why his grandfather was in the family photos. He said McGarrett’s grandfather was a young serviceman that came to their house over a period of about three months to be tutored for an officer’s aptitude test. Sometimes while he was at the house, he would play catch with Toriyama. He said he recalled these events, because McGarrett had the same heart as his grandfather. He also brought the baseball glove with him that was a gift to him from McGarrett’s grandfather. He then gave the glove to McGarrett.