Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century

8. The Minidoka Draft Resisters in a Federal Kangaroo Court

8 I THE MINIDOKA DRAFT RESISTERS IN A FEDERAL KANGAROO COURT ERIC L. MULLER On the last day of spring 1944. the United States Army staged an induction ceremonyfor sixty-sixnewIdahodraftees. It wasa rather unusual ceremony in that the army welcoming the new draftees was simultaneously guarding them and their families at gunpoint. The ceremonywas taking place behind the barbed-wirefence ofthe Minidoka Relocation Center near Hunt, Idaho, one of the ten camps the federal War Relocation Authority (WRA) set up in 1942 to house the approximately 110,000 people ofJapanese descent the army had earlier forcefully removed from the West Coast out offear that some might attempt subversion. Most Minidoka residentshad been uprooted from their homes in SeattIeand Portland in the springof1942. The drafteeswere, ofcourse, all Nisei, young Japanese American men, most in their twenties and younger, who somehow found the spirit to answer the call to arms of the country that had incarcerated them. Military service was being promoted to the Nisei as a precious opportunity to prove the loyalty and patriotism of aU Japanese Americansqualities that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had sharply, if unfairly, called into question. And Nisei loyalty was what the induction ceremony at Minidoka was designed to emphasize and celebrate. But when Lt. B. M. Harrington ofthe Traveling Examiningand Induction Board from Fort Douglas , Utah, rose to administer the military oath, things quickly went awry. We in theAmerican armed forces are happytowelcomeyou Japaneseamong our ranks, even though your country, Japan, is at war with the United States. The fact that you young Japanese are willing to fight against your country proves that there [are1a few Japanese who [are1good Americans. 172 ERIC L MULLER He concluded his remarks by congratulating "you Japanese" for "making a splendid record in ourArmy where youare welcomed and given all ofthe rights and privileges ofany othercitizen who is broughtinto [the] service." Harrington's comments immediately sapped the crowd of its enthusiasm . "Doesn't he know we were born here and are citizens of the United States, not Japan?" muttered one young man. "Why doesn't that guy get next to himselfanddiscoverto what countrywe belong?" said another. "We are no Japs." A Minidoka administrator took Harrington aside after his speech and pointed out the lieutenant's errors: the Nisei draftees were Americans, not Japanese; they were leaving the camp to fight for their country, not against it; and the U.S. Army was as much theirs as it was Lieutenant Harrington's. Harrington accepted the suggestions, but the damage was done. One ofthe sixty-sixyoungmen turned andwalked awayjustbeforethe oathwasadministered , joiningin defiance a tiny handful ofothers from Minidoka who by now had decided to resist the draft.l In time, that tiny handful of resisters would grow to forty. By late summer , more than three dozen Minidokanswere in countyjailsin and around Boise, Idaho, awaiting federal court trials for draft evasion, a felony carryingamaximum term offiveyears inprison. However, any hopes theseyoung Americans harbored for fair trials were misplaced. The federal courts, so often thought to bethe last and best protectorofAmerican freedoms, failed the Minidoka resisters miserably, offering them only sham trials by biased decision-makers. What follows is thestoryofthe Nisei draft resisters ofthe MinidokaRelocation Centerand their unhappyexperiencesina federal kangaroo court. It was not onlythe court that failed these young men. So did the law. No clear principle ofconstitutional law on the books in 1944 would have permitted ayoung man to refuse militaryservice because of an egregious violation of his civil rights. Indeed, no principle of constitutional law on the books today establishes that proposition. This may be the most disturbing lessonofthe Minidoka resisters'experience-thatitwas not merelythecourt system that would countenance the immoral treatment of American citizens , but the law itself. After January 20, 1944> when the federal government announced it was reopening the draft to the Nisei after incarcerating them and their Issei eIdersfor nearlytwo years, the reactionat Minidoka was muted. At othercamps, however, Nisei began resisting the draft almost immediately; at Heart THE MINIDOKA DRAFT RESISTERS IN A FEDERAL KANGAROO COURT 173 Mountain in Wyoming, a noisy and public draft resistance movement was quickly born.2 With a small group of articulate and motivated older Nisei at its helm, the Heart Mountain group took a public and principled stand: We will gladly serve in the army if our and our families' civil rights are first restored. But through the month ofApril, as the numbers of draft resisters...