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Soldiers of Conscience Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II

Shirley Castelnuovo

Foreword by Cedrick Shimo

Book Code: C35330

ISBN: 0-313-35330-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-35330-7

DOI:

200 pages, photos

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 7/30/2008

List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £27.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

History » World War II

Endorsement From Lane Ryo Hirabayashi is George and Sakaye Aratani,
Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress & Community, UCLA: 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?

Description: Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor unleashed rampant racism and distrust towards "all things alien," and it raised perplexing questions of national identity that still reverberate. Persons of Japanese ancestry were the victims of frequent racist acts and culturally biased governmental loyalty investigations, and, finally, of exclusion and imprisonment. The majority of Japanese Americans complied with government actions during this period, including the drafting of Japanese Americans into military service. Many loyal Japanese Americans saw such service as an opportunity to display their allegiance to the United States. However, some 200 Japanese Americans drafted into the Army refused to serve in combat while their families languished in internment camps.

The history of Japanese Americans in World War II does not record the stories of these resisters. It does not mention the War Department Special Organization to which many of them were transferred or the individuals who were tried and sentenced by military courts to long 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.

Though their actions were frowned upon at the time by many of their own families, and certainly by the military, the draft resisters are now positively recognized in the Japanese American community. Yet, their story remains largely untold, overshadowed by the heroic stories of those Japanese Americans who served on the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Here, for the first time, the resisters' story is related in vivid detail.

Castelnuovo does not abandon the narrative with the end of World War II. Instead, she follows many of the resisters into the post-war years, assessing the ramifications of their actions on their lives as individuals and within the broader context of the Japanese American community. Happily, most of the resisters were eventually re-embraced by their community, but, until now, they have been forgotten by students of World War II. That is an oversight Soldiers of Conscience will certainly remedy.

Table of Contents:

Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Presumption of Disloyalty
Chapter 2. The Pre-Detention Inductees: Individual Conscientious Resistance
Chapter 3. The Fort McClellan Conscientious Resisters
Chapter 4. The Response to Fort McClellan
Chapter 5. Renunciation/Repatriation in the Military
Chapter 6. Company of the Damned
Chapter 7. Renunciation/Repatriation at Fort Meade
Chapter 8. Partial Vindication
Chapter 9. The Conscientious Resisters and the Japanese American Community
Chapter 10. Military Service and the Right of Conscience
Notes

LC Card Number: 2008008792

LCC Class: D769

Dewey Class: 940

PDF Catalogs:
PSI Catalog Fall 2008.pdf


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