Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II

by Shirley Castelnuovo

Overview

After the bombings of Pearl Harbor, the onset of rampant racism and distrust towards "all things alien" residing on American soil permeated the air. Persons of Japanese ancestry were the frequent victims of racist acts and culturally-biased governmental loyalty investigations and questionnaires. The prospect of reporting to active duty for a country that had imprisoned Japanese-American families and friends seemed trivial to resisters of injustice and racism. On the other hand, loyal Japanese-Americans saw it as an opportunity to display their solidarity to the United States. However, their efforts were met without reward as some members of the Japanese American Community were viewed as traitors or cowards. The "conscientious" resisters who questioned the actions of the government were met with a backlash of loyal Japanese-Americans. The history of the Japanese Americans in World War II does not record the stories of these resistors, nor does it mention the War Department Special Organization to which many of them were transferred or those who were tried and sentenced by military courts to long-term prison terms. The 200 conscientious military resisters felt betrayed by the government and viewed the decision to imprison Japanese Americans as an immoral acquiescence to west coast racism. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor set off perplexing issues of national identity that still reverberate today. The attack unleashed a pent up racism that had been directed at Japanese Americans for the previous 100 years which led to the exclusion and imprisonment of west coast Japanese Americans in 1942. The majority of Japanese Americans complied with these government actions including the drafting ofJapanese Americans into military service. Some 200 Japanese Americans drafted into the Army prior to Pearl Harbor, however, refused to serve in combat while their families languished in the internment camps. Though their actions were frowned up on at the time by many of their own families, and certainly the military, the draft resisters are now positively recognized in the Japanese American community. But their story remains largely untold in military circles, overshadowed by the heroic service of the stories of those who served in Japanese Americans who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. For the first time, the resisters' story is told in vivid detail. Castelnuovo documents their stories, from those who acted as individuals to those who were part of a collective opposition. She does not abandon the narrative, however, with the end of WWII. She follows many of the resisters into their post war years, assessing the ramifications of their actions on their lives as individuals and within the broader context of the Japanese-American community as well, noting that most were eventually re-embraced by their community, while forgotten to scholars and students of WWII.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313353314
Publisher:	Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/30/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	994 KB

About the Author

Shirley Castelnuovo is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois and Adjunct Professor of Social and Behavioral Science at Saddleback College. For twenty years her work has focused on equal rights for women and the disabled, and the resistance of Japanese Americans to their imprisonment during World War II.

Table of Contents

Foreword Cedrick Shimo ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xix

A Note on Terminology and Names xxi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Presumption of Disloyalty 10

Chapter 2 The Pre-Detention Inductees: Individual Conscientious Resistance 22

Chapter 3 The Fort McClellan Conscientious Resisters 38

Chapter 4 The Response to Fort McClellan 53

Chapter 5 Renunciation/Repatriation in the Military 60

Chapter 6 Company of the Damned 67

Chapter 7 Renunciation/Repatriation at Fort Meade 76

Chapter 8 Partial Vindication 86

Chapter 9 The Conscientious Resisters and the Japanese American Community 102

Chapter 10 Military Service and the Right of Conscience 120

Notes 129

Index 153

What People are Saying About This

Lane Ryo Hirabayashi is George and Sakaye Aratani

"Do U.S. military personnel have the right to resist orders if these violate domestic or international law? This passionate and scholarly account of Japanese American soldiers during World War II both stuns and compels. Castelnuovo assesses a hidden chapter in American history and asks: are we mistaken to ignore Objectors of Conscience in the U.S. Armed Forces?"

Editorial Reviews

“Do U.S. military personnel have the right to resist orders if these violate domestic or international law? This passionate and scholarly account of Japanese American soldiers during World War II both stuns and compels. Castelnuovo assesses a hidden chapter in American history and asks: are we mistaken to ignore ‘Objectors of Conscience’ in the U.S. Armed Forces?”—Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress & Community, University of California at Los Angeles

Lane Ryo Hirabayashi