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Reviews
A Matter of Conscience: Essays on the World War II Heart Mountain Draft Resistance Movement
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Edited by Mike Mackey
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Western History Publications, Powell, Wyoming, 2002. Notes, bibliography, index. 185 pages. $15.95 paper.
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Reviewed by Robert J. Gould
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
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| Americans are dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, a principle that philosophers refer to as a consequential doctrine. Americans are also dedicated to certain rights that must not be abridged in the pursuit of these goals. This is a principled, or deontological, doctrine. Given our commitment to prosperity and military power, it seems fairly easy to suppose that concerns about consequences generally have outweighed concerns about principles throughout American history. There are some notable historical exceptions, however. This moral oscillation is curiously expressed in the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II. Japanese American internment (or concentration) camps represented the supremacy of the consequential view over the deontological view, although it was not as simple as it appeared. |
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The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) took up the consequential view by refusing to criticize the concentration camps and supporting a draft of Japanese American males into segregated military units to fight in the war. The consequence that military authorities sought was an assurance of loyalty by Japanese Americans; the consequence that the JACL sought was a path toward further integration into American society. The JACL thought Japanese Americans would gain more in the long run if they complied with the forced removal and achieved military heroism on the battlefield. |
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Within this context, it is almost stunning to read about the draft resistance of Japanese Americans who were interned. A Matter of Conscience explores this civil rights movement in sections that consider Japanese Americans' cultural background, present personal stories from the resisters themselves, and address the legal and psychological aspects of their internment and resistance. |
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At the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming, sixty-three Japanese Americans resisted and were convicted of draft violations at the largest draft resistance trial in American history. Their argument was about holding onto civil rights principles at the risk of losing what the JACL hoped to gain — widespread acceptance of Japanese Americans into American society. Given such a risk, it is not surprising that this episode in American history was well on its way to oblivion. At the edge of this historical abyss, Roger Daniels and Douglas Nelson "discovered" what lived only in obscure documents and the private memories of a few people. |
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Such discoveries usually transform into captivating history. I was a draft counselor during the Vietnam War, so I am predisposed to find A Matter of Conscience almost mesmerizing. I would also say, however, that most American historians would find this interesting reading and that high school history teachers would benefit from this bit of history that illuminates a crucial tension within the moral landscape of the American project. In fact, a useful addition to a second edition would be an appendix with high school lesson plans. |
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The fact that the World War II Heart Mountain draft resistance movement was practically lost from public memory raises a curious problem for historians. The concealment and recovery of this history is accompanied by the anger of movement participants and those who believe their treatment was immoral. What are we to make of history that is laced with bites of anger? Does it mislead us? Is it biased? Is it really history, or is it political or moral opinion? |
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The best history demands proper contextu-alization. This requires that the historical events be placed within the various important moral, cultural, and political contexts. In this sense, A Matter of Conscience both succeeds and falters as history. It succeeds in recovering an important chapter in American history, but it does not fully contextualize that history. It portrays the draft resistance at Heart Mountain within a civil liberties context while de-emphasizing Japanese American resistance to militarism and the vulnerability experienced by the wider U.S. population. As a political and moral work meant to evoke outrage about civil liberties hastily cast aside for racist reasons, however, A Matter of Conscience succeeds grandly. |
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I sensed that the editor worried about just such an appraisal of this work. In the introduction, Mike Mackey makes a distinction between scholarship and public education that closely parallels my own analysis. Historical scholarship raises the ethical problem of American concerns for outcomes versus our concerns for principles. It also raises worries about militarism on the one hand and, on the other hand, the military's worries about assessing the loyalty of a still-alien culture. In contrast, public education might easily involve the kind of political and moral consciousness-raising that draws our focus onto genuine concern for civil rights in the face of ugly racism and the disturbing trade-offs of purely consequentialist ethics. |
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