On March 21, about three months after Pearl Harbor, the first group of Japanese-American "volunteers" arrived at Manzanar, California, at what would become the first of ten detention camps called "War Relocation Centers," an official euphemism. The final group of new inmates began to arrive at the camp at Jerome, Arkansas on October 6, 1942. The total number of inmates reached 120,313 and they were placed "under the custody of the War Relocation Authority," an agency of the U.S. Government. "Custody" is a key word in this essay.
On June 17, 1942, Selective Service discontinued drafting the Japanese-Americans who were U.S. citizens by classifying them IV-C, as though they were, like their parents, enemy aliens. On January 14, 1944, Selective Service restored the classification to I-A and ordered them to take physical examinations. In response, 315 young male inmates resisted conscription either by not going for their physical exams or refusing to be inducted.
One of their slogans was, "Free us before you draft us." It was not only appropriate; it was good law. According to the Selective Service Act of 1940, "In class IV-F shall be placed any registrant who . . . . 5) Is being retained in the custody of criminal jurisdiction or other civil authority." [emphasis added]
Did the WRA comprise other civil authority by being the custodian of the inmates? The answer is in the official and authoritative report of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, The Evacuated People: A Quantitative Description, 1946. It begins, "Some 120,313 persons of Japanese descent came under the custody of the War Relocation Authority between May 8, 1942 . .. . and March 20, 1946 . . . ."
Since the inmates of the camps were in the custody of the WRA, the male inmates who were registered for the draft should have been classified IV-F. With the IV-F classification, of course, they would not be drafted. This is a major recent discovery that I made when I was finally able to read the classifications for the 1940 version of the Selective Service Act in a book. (The microfilmed version I had been using did not include the classifications.) It was not the resisters who broke the law; it was the U.S. government. "Free us before you draft us."
On November 5 and 6 of 2004, a major conference was held in Los Angeles. It was organized by the North Carolina University's School of Law. Its first panel had, among others, two speakers who had been members of the Fair Play Committee of the 63 draft resisters at the WRA camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming: Frank Emi and Yosh Kuromiya. In his speech, Kuromiya included the observation on the illegality of conscripting young men who were in the custody of the WRA. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first public statement on this illegality. As far as I could tell, his statement failed to create a stir in the audience of former inmates of the camps and members of the legal profession.
So I much appreciate the invitation to inform members and friends of CCCO of this illegality.
I think it is time that we came to the support of the resisters and express our appreciation for their courage, even if it has taken 60 years. Also, this aspect of our wartime internment does need to become part of its history. We were not only interned illegally as suspect U.S. citizens and residents. We young male U.S. citizens who were detained by the War Relocation Authority should have been classified IV-F under the Selective Service Act of 1940. Instead, we were forced to serve in the U.S. Army in clear violation of the law.