Charles Davis and Jeffrey Kovac

Confrontation at the Locks

A Protest of Japanese Removal and Incarceration during World War II

IT IS A MEASURE OF THE IDEALISM of the World War II conscientious objectors (COs) that J. Henry Dasenbrock, the first assignee to Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp 21 at Cascade Locks, Oregon, reported early.¹ Dasenbrock had received a letter early in the fall of 1941 ordering him to report to the camp on December 5. The camp director was Rev. Mark Y. Schrock, he learned, a Church of the Brethren minister from Olympia, Washington, whom Dasenbrock had known while growing up in Idaho. Volunteering to help Schrock set up the new camp, Dasenbrock slept on the couch of Schrock's home in Olympia for a month or so before heading to Cascade Locks in late November to prepare the camp for the first arrivals. Schrock had spent several months searching for a site for the first CPS camp in the Pacific Northwest and had settled on Wyeth, about six miles east of Cascade Locks, because of the excellent facilities of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp there. It was relatively easy to get there by rail and bus, and there was the wealth of Forest Service work projects to keep COs busy in the nearby Mt. Hood National Forest. Schrock also may have been impressed with the beauty of the landscape along Gorton Creek, where the camp was sandwiched between the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River.

Early morning rain at thr Oregon Historical Society

Dean Shapiro, photographer

The camp population, which eventually reached two hundred men, was diverse — in their religious beliefs, their educational backgrounds, and their financial and family circumstances. The one thing the men had in common was that they refused to serve in the military either as combatants or noncombatants. All of them had been subjected to conscription, and they were sensitive to the power of the state. Many also shared a strong commitment to social justice. For some, that commitment came from their religious background; for others, it had a more philosophical and political origin. Because of their common cause, taking principled actions against what the men considered to be social injustice became an essential part of the CPS experience for many COs.

World War II conscientious objectors lived beside the river in the midst of the forest-covered basalt cliffs of the Columbia River Gorge at this Civilian Public Service camp near Cascade Locks, Oregon.

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In the summer of 1942, the men of CPS Camp 21 mounted one of the few sustained protests against the federal government's incarceration of Japanese citizens and aliens during World War II.² Their protest, sparked by an order to remove George Kiyoshi Yamada, a CO at Camp 21, to an internment camp illuminates the history of the conscientious objector system during World War II and highlights a little-known example of resistance to the government's racist relocation policy. This account of the resistance to Yamada's removal is based on a manuscript by the late Charles Davis, who was a CO at Camp 21 and a participant in the protest.

CIVILIAN PUBLIC SERVICE had its origin in a visit to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 10, 1940, by seven representatives of the Church of the Brethren, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Mennonite Church — a group also known as the historic peace churches.³ Even though the war in Europe was in its early stages, the United States was moving rapidly into prewar preparation, and the seven men wanted to express their concern that, should war come, adequate provisions be made for conscience. Their proposal — modeled on the successful system in Great Britain — called for alternative civilian service and complete exemption for absolutists, those men who were unwilling to cooperate with any system of conscription.⁴ Although the president was affable and the delegation left his office feeling that the meeting was a success, a sustained lobbying effort by the churches was required to persuade Congress to include the essence of their proposal into the pending bill. Ultimately, the Selective Service and Training Act of 1940 provided for those persons who, "by reasons of religious training and belief, are conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form" to be placed either in noncombatant roles in the military or assigned to do work of national importance under civilian control.⁵ The act provided no exemption for absolutists and no provision for nonreligious objectors, but it was an improvement over the situation during World War I when the options for COs were to enter the military with no guarantee of noncombatant service or to go to prison.

Classification decisions were delegated to more than 6,700 local Selective Service boards around the country. A registrant who believed he qualified for CO status filed DSS Form 47 with his local board. An unfavorable decision could be appealed to a Regional Board of Appeals. Under certain circumstances — for example, if the decision of the Appeal Board was not unanimous — a registrant could appeal further to the president, who delegated to the director of Selective Service to make a ruling. Because the decisions were made by thousands of local boards, the interpretation of the statute varied widely. Some local boards were openly hostile to COs, while others were quite sympathetic.⁶

Civilian Public Service, the network of camps and other projects where twelve thousand COs performed their alternative service, was a unique and complex arrangement between the three historic peace churches and the Selective Service System. It was somewhat like "a religious order whose members, though under legal compulsion, were moved primarily by their personal ideals to perform a sacrificial service."⁷ Under an agreement worked out during the last few months of 1940, the three churches agreed to administer and finance the camps. To help, the historic peace churches set up the National Service Board for Religious Objectors (NSBRO) and named Paul Comly French, a member of the Society of Friends, as executive secretary. Other churches and pacifist organizations, such as the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the War Resisters League, soon joined. By the end of the war, thirty-nine organizations were members. NSBRO was the liaison in Washington, D.C., between the church groups that administered the camps and the Selective Service.

Like many Civilian Public Service camps in the United States, Camp 21 at Wyeth took over an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps facility.

OHS neg., CN 015051

The government agreed to make available abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps campsites and to furnish cots, bedding, and other equipment. The Selective Service set policy, oversaw the operations, and paid transportation costs to the camps, just as it did for a draftee into the military. The men received no pay for their work, however, and their dependents received no financial assistance, unlike the dependents of those in the military. In fact, those who could were asked to pay $35 a month for room and board. The men received $2.50 per month in spending money. The Departments of Agriculture and Interior provided technical supervision for the work projects, as well as tools and other equipment. But the main burden fell on church groups. During the six years the camps operated, churches raised more than $7 million to support them, along with gifts-in-kind of food, clothing, and other supplies. The bulk of the support came from the three peace churches, even though approximately 40 percent of those in the camps claimed affiliation with other or no denominations. This arrangement was originally to be a six-month experiment, but it quickly became established for the duration of the war.⁸

COs at Camp 21 line up to be loaded onto trucks and transported to their work for the Forest Service. Other Camp 21 COs worked from a side camp on Larch Mountain.

Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, Blocher D62

The first director of the Selective Service, Dr. Clarence A. Dykstra, was an educator who had been president of the University of Wisconsin, but when he resigned he was replaced by a military man, Gen. Lewis B. Hershey. Col. Lewis F. Kosch, a former CCC official and longtime army colleague of General Hershey's, was the chief of the Camp Operations Division. The two men brought an authoritarian mentality to the administration of the CPS camps, an approach that was reinforced by the national mood after Pearl Harbor. Many believed that COs should have a life at least as tough as the troops who were fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Lt. Col. Franklin L. McLean of the Camp Operations Divisions described the conditions for COs assigned to CPS camps:

From the time an assignee reports to camp until he is finally released he is under the control of the Director of Selective Service. He ceases to be a free agent and is accountable for all of his time, in camp and out, 24 hours a day. His movement, actions and conduct are subject to control and regulation. He ceases to have certain rights and is granted privileges instead. These privileges can be restricted or withdrawn without his consent as punishment, during emergency or as a matter of policy. He may be told when and how to work, what to wear and where to sleep. He can be required to submit to medical examinations and treatment, and to practice rules of health and sanitation. He may be moved from place to place and from job to job, even to foreign countries, for the convenience of the government regardless of his personal feelings or desires.⁹

Charles Davis speaks to fellow COs at a special occasion being celebrated in the dining hall at CPS Camp 21.

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Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared all nationals and subjects of Japan, Germany, and Italy as alien enemies and permitted the Justice Department to apprehend any such persons who were deemed "dangerous to the public peace or safety of the United States."¹⁰ Gen. John L. DeWitt, the commanding officer of the Western Defense Command (WDC), based in the Presidio in San Francisco, focused on the threat from the Japanese. He found the efforts by the Justice Department to be inadequate and pushed for military involvement to isolate Japanese and Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast. It was his "Final Recommendation," issued in February 1942, that led to Executive Order 9066 and subsequent enabling legislation. DeWitt advised the president:

In the war in which we are now engaged racial identities are not severed by migration. The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become "Americanized," the racial strains are undiluted. . . . It therefore follows that along the vital Pacific Coast over 112,000 potential enemies are at large today.¹¹

The result was the removal and incarceration of those "potential enemies" in what amounted to concentration camps surrounded by barbed wire and located in remote places.¹²

ON FEBRUARY 19, 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the removal of persons of Japanese descent from most of the West Coast, George Kiyoshi Yamada was already confined under the control of the director of the Selective Service System at CPS Camp 21 at Cascade Locks. Yamada was born in 1918 just outside the small town of Minatare, a sugar-beet farming community in western Nebraska. His father, who had refused to be conscripted into the armed forces of Japan, had immigrated with his family to the United States a few years before Yamada was born. Although his parents were devoted Methodist converts, Yamada had ceased attending church at age twelve because he believed it fell short in its application of Christian teachings in daily life. Still, he had become a firm pacifist. At age nineteen, he moved to San Francisco, became part of the local Nisei community, and eventually attended San Francisco State College, where he majored in journalism. When the first peacetime draft law was enacted on October 16, 1940, Yamada was strong enough in his pacifist convictions to apply for CO status. His local Selective Service board awarded him the 4-E classification (conscientious objector) in the fall of 1941, and he received orders to report to CPS Camp 21 on December 5, 1941, two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.¹³ COs were usually assigned to the camp nearest their point of induction, as long as it was at least one hundred miles from home.¹⁴

CPS Camp 21 was located in the Columbia River Gorge on Gorton Creek in Wyeth, Oregon, a few miles east of Cascade Locks. The main camp at Wyeth was opened on November 27, 1941, when nine men arrived from the CPS camp at San Dimas, California, and a side camp was established on nearby Larch Mountain in December. Seventy-one more COs arrived on December 5, and by January 15, 1942, the population was 105. The camp newspaper, The Columbian, reported that at the end of May 1942 there were 185 men in the camp, 117 from California, 35 from Oregon, 15 from Washington, 7 from Idaho, and the remaining 11 from several other states. Forty religious denominations were represented at the camp: 36 were Mennonite, 23 were Methodists, 22 were Brethren, and 13 were Jehovah's Witnesses. No other denomination claimed more than 7 men, and 22 were listed as "none" — that is, they had no religious affiliation. The educational level of the men ranged from fourth grade to a few with several years of postgraduate study. There were 44 occupations listed, ranging from unskilled jobs such as laborer to college-educated professionals such as accountant, architect, and teacher.¹⁵

George Yamada, left, was the only Japanese American CO at CPS Camp 21. COs at the camp protested when the federal government attempted to remove Yamada to a Japanese internment camp.

Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, Blocher D12

The camp itself had been a Civilian Conservation Corps facility with four dormitories, each housing fifty to sixty men.¹⁶ The chapel, with its peaked window providing a spectacular view of the mountains, was designed by architect Kemper Nomland, a resident of the camp, and there was a well-stocked library, which was eventually named after Mark Schrock. When the library burned on January 28, 1943, destroying the entire collection of two thousand books as well as artwork by camp members, camp members put the library in a new building and renamed it New Athens.

This map of CPS Camp 21, located just east of Cascade Locks, shows the relationship of the camp to the Columbia River, the Union Pacific rail line, and Gorton Creek.

Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, Sheets Papers

Under the convoluted arrangement that characterized CPS, the camp was initially administered jointly by the Brethren Service Committee and the Mennonite Central Committee, but the "work of national importance under civilian direction" was supervised by the U.S. Forest Service through its Herman Creek Ranger Station.¹⁷ For reasons of administrative efficiency, the Mennonite Central Committee withdrew from the administration of the camp on May 22, 1942, leaving it entirely to the Brethren. The two hundred men assigned to CPS 21 worked primarily in the Mt. Hood National Forest doing conservation work, fighting forest fires, and building and maintaining hiking trails. Some were involved with the administration and operation of the camp. George Yamada worked as a cook.¹⁸

IN JUNE 1942, the Camp Operations Division of Selective Service sent a telegram to camp director Mark Schrock:

George Kiyoshi Yamada is to be discharged from CPS Camp No. 21 Cascade Locks, Oregon, in order that he may be sent to a camp under the jurisdiction of the War Relocation Authority. This man is to be discharged upon receipt by the Camp Director of information from the Office of the Commanding General, Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, Presidio of San Francisco, California.¹⁹

Under the peculiar arrangements between the Selective Service and the historic peace churches, Schrock was an employee of the Brethren Service Committee but was directly responsible to the officers of the Selective Service System. After talking with Yamada and others, he responded with a letter to General Hershey and Colonel Kosch on June 30. Copies of similar letters were sent to Paul C. French and W. Harold Row, the director of Civilian Public Service for the Brethren Service Committee. After giving some information about Yamada's background and Schrock's involvement with CPS, he wrote:

Since December 5, 1941, [George Yamada] has been a peaceful and constructive member of our camp, having served as a cook, and even a head cook in our kitchen, and as chairman of the educational committee and a member of the council at our Larch Mountain side camp.
    Since the national administration has seized upon the presence of Japanese citizens and American citizens of Japanese ancestry as an occasion for whipping up war hysteria among not too easily convinced citizens, George has voluntarily restricted himself to the confines of our own camp, where he is loved and appreciated by all. From my contacts with local law enforcement officers, I am sure that there are no complaints against George or his presence by the people of this community.
    When the authorization was made known to our men they were deeply moved with a sense of injustice and decided to raise a protest directly. This they did in the night letter, copy of which is enclosed, which they sent to Selective Service. I have not yet informed the boys in our camp regarding my own relationship to the affair, but I shall of course do it soon.
    With my present light I cannot conscientiously sign my name to the discharge papers nor to the government requests for transportation, meals, and lodging, because by so doing I, become for one short moment a part of the administration of the ruthless treatment of a part of humanity and discrimination and punishment of our own fellow citizens by the United States government. This I cannot do, although I am now as eager as ever to give of my time and energy to any constructive work that can be done for the well being of my country as a whole without inflicting injustice or participating in what fair minded men of today and all future ages must see as a crime and an insane inhumanity to man.
    I do not know what such inability to cooperate on this will involve. I do not know whether you and the Brethren Service Committee will consider my stand to be in accordance with the Christian values and your desires or not. If you do share with me in my position, I shall welcome your suggestions on procedure. You may even wish to negotiate with Selective Service and NSBRO for a stay in the order for discharge, and if necessary for the transfer of this assignee to some CPS camp not in the area of evacuation. I would be perfectly willing to sign transportation and meal and lodging requests should it be desired that this assignee should be transferred to another CPS camp farther inland.
    If you do not share my attitude you may consider this as my resignation as director of CPS camp 21, and if you wish to avoid making any open issue of this case, you may wire your acceptance of my resignation effective immediately. You will then be free to appoint someone else as director or acting director to care for this matter without incident or delay.
    P.S. This letter has been read to the entire staff of our camp and they have with one accord expressed their agreement in the position indicated and their unwillingness to sign the papers involved. This is merely for your information.²⁰

On June 29, Schrock discussed the situation in a formal meeting of the nearly two hundred conscientious objectors then living in the camp. At a meeting the following day, nonviolent techniques were discussed.²¹ Kermit Sheets, a member of the camp at the time, later remembered:

And wow, that camp blew apart! Because here was a guy as isolated as you could be. We knew George, he was a conscientious objector, for crying out loud! He wasn't going to send messages to Japan that would make them shoot us! The whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. Then we had loads of meetings as to how we were going to handle it when they came for George. It got extremely tense, verging on the melodramatic, for the feelings that were there. People wondering how many people should lie down in front of the car that was to take him away.²²

There was even a suggestion that the camp kidnap Yamada to bring national attention to the case and force a congressional investigation. Eventually, a telegram was drafted and sent to General Hershey and a letter, which included the text of the telegram, was sent to the other forty CPS camps across the country, where some thirty-five hundred COs were serving.²³ The letter was prepared by a committee but signed by Camp President Charles Davis on behalf of the camp. The letter opened with a description of the situation including the text of the order to discharge Yamada. Then Davis wrote:

George has won the respect of every member of the camp for his honesty and integrity, and the reaction was one of approval when he told them that he would not accept evacuation.
    The 200-odd men who comprise this camp are agreed in a philosophy opposed to race discrimination. Because of our basic belief in full racial equality and our objection to restriction of civil liberties, we have sent the following telegram to Selective Service, and have written similar letters to N.S.B.R.O., Forest Service, and other interested agencies:

"Feeling great injustice in the evacuation of fellow citizens of Japanese ancestry, enjoying the same constitutional rights that we enjoy, we strongly urge the rescinding of the discharge order affecting George Yamada of C.P.S. Camp 21."

    What the reaction of Selective Service will be, may only be surmised. But there is no basis in the past treatment of Japanese Americans, on which to assume that our request for rescinding of the discharge order will be readily granted. Since we regard George Yamada as our equal and ourselves as no more nor less than he, we are prepared to take non-violent direct action appropriate to the response we receive from Selective Service. (A hunger strike, a work strike, non-violent resistance to his removal from the camp, or insistence upon sharing whatever treatment is accorded him, have been suggested as possible courses of action.)
    In view of the fact that speed is imperative, may we suggest that you take the matter under discussion upon receipt of this letter and let us know by the quickest method the immediate result of your meeting.
    We would be happy to have your support in what we consider a Christian undertaking. Your letters or telegrams to Selective Service and the War Relocation Authority will add weight to the appeal we have made. We also welcome your suggestions for further action, and your comments on the action already taken.²⁴

Mark Schrock, the director of CPS Camp 21, stands next to a portrait painted by Kemper Nomland, a CO stationed at the camp.

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Similar letters were sent to ministers and leaders of organizations thought to be interested in issues of civil liberties, including Milton Eisenhower, then the director of the War Relocation Authority (WRA). In the spirit of openness essential to Gandhian nonviolent direct action, copies were sent to the Selective Service and the Western Defence Command. No copies were sent to the press and there was no press notice of the confrontation.²⁵

The men at CPS Camp 21 elected a council that included (from left) Eugene Hudson, Walter Haag, Hugh Merrick, Charles Davis, Al Benglen, Bill Cable, Gladden Boaz, and Henry Dasenbrock.

OHS neg., CN 015049

Response was prompt, with strong support from the camp in Coshocton, Ohio (CPS 23): "Feeling deep concern over discharge order affecting George Yamada and aware of the fellowship which is our strength. We pledge to follow your lead in non-violent direct action if necessary." The Petersham, Massachusetts, camp (CPS 9) wrote: "Camp much interested in Yamada case. Taking action by wire and letter as explained in air mail letter following. Please Keep us advised of developments." The Royalston, Massachusetts, camp (CPS 10) wrote: "If it is possible, we would like Mr. Yamada to become member of CPS #10, Royalston." Similar support came from at least two other camps (CPS 19 in Marion, North Carolina, and CPS 37 in Colluvial, California), from national pacifist organizations, and from individuals, including A.J. Muste of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.²⁶

Although there was broad agreement concerning the injustice of the Japanese removal and incarceration, a significant minority of camp residents did not support nonviolent direct action in resistance to the order. The forty-eight men who believed in nonresistance signed a letter to Colonel Kosch.

We, the undersigned of C.P.S. Camp #21, are hereby giving our statement to clarify our stand in regard to the action taken by the camp concerning the evacuation of George Yamada. We feel that the Japanese evacuation order is wholly wrong and wish to state that we agree with our camp in principle, but not in the method of action taken.
We as Christians, adhering to the privilege granted to us by our Government and placing ourselves totally in the grace of God, cannot sanction any method of non-violent direct action. Therefore, we want it clearly understood that we played no part therein. We believe that the powers that be are ordained of God and it is our sincere desire to cooperate with our government in any way we can without violating our conscience. We thank God that we have the privilege of being in service to our country in a C.P.S. Camp.
In conclusion, let us make it known that we desire and are striving for camp unity and hope that a repetition of disagreements does not occur.²⁷

This discord shows the deep philosophical differences among COs concerning their relationship with the government.²⁸ The largest group in CPS, the Mennonites, deferred to government authority, which they believed was ordained by God. For them, alternative service was a privilege and an opportunity to show their patriotism. They believed it was their Christian duty to obey the state in all requirements that did not violate the teachings of God. The Quakers did not believe there was any compulsion to obey the state. They believed that what is true and right is to be discovered in an inner light burning in each individual. If the state requires something that contradicts the dictates of one's conscience, then that individual has a moral obligation to speak out or to combat the wrong. This position was shared, at least in spirit, by COs of other religious or philosophical persuasions who were motivated by a strong sense of social justice. Some of those men were so articulate and active that they became leaders in the camps, startling those who came merely to abstain from the war.²⁹ Between the two extremes were the Brethren, who took a position of conciliation. They were not bound by creedal obligation to obey the state, but they recognized that total rejection of government leads to anarchy. The Brethren leadership was convinced that CPS was an appropriate compromise and worked to mediate the disagreements that arose.

Mabel Schrock, Mark Schrock, an unidentified CO, and Harry Prochaska clean salmon at the CPS camp in about 1942.

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BY THE TIME GEORGE YAMADA was told he would be discharged from CPS Camp 21 and "sent to a camp under the jurisdiction of the War Relocation Authority," some one hundred thousand citizens and long-term resident aliens had already been removed from the western parts of California, Oregon, and Washington to assembly centers, awaiting transfer to detention camps. There was little protest of or resistance to the removal of Japanese. Senator Sheridan Downey and Congressman Jerry Voorhis of California and Congressman John Coffee of Washington opposed the removal program, as did the mayor of Tacoma, Washington, Harry Cain, but there was virtually no open opposition from church leaders.³⁰ In fact, there was strong support for the removal. Only a few Japanese challenged the order. In March 1942 Minoru Yasui, from Hood River, had violated curfew and was awaiting trial in Portland (he would be tried and convicted in July 1943). Gordon Hirabayashi, a student at the University of Washington and a Quaker who was classified 4-E, had been scheduled to leave for CPS Camp 21 on April 23, 1942, but that order had been cancelled. In May, he violated curfew and refused to report for removal. He would be tried in Seattle (Hirabayashi was convicted in October 1942). A third Japanese American, Fred Korematsu, had been apprehended in San Leandro, California, for violating the evacuation order and had retained a lawyer to challenge it.³¹

Don Baker and Kemper Nomland print The Columbian newspaper, which published George Yamada's response to his transfer to an inland CPS camp.

Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, Blocher D31

COLONEL KOSCH WAS ENRAGED when the COs under his command opposed the removal of Yamada from CPS to a detention center. He was certain that the men in the camp had been plotting against the government for a long time, and he was ready to fly to Oregon and take over the camp himself.³² In Washington, D.C., the executive secretary of NSBRO advised that he was doing everything possible to keep Yamada at Cascade Locks. Paul French's diary for July 3, 1942, indicates that telegrams and letters of protest were arriving at the Selective Service office and that Orie Miller, director of CPS for the Mennonite Central Committee, reported that even the usually placid Mennonite camps were disturbed over the Yamada situation. On July 4, French reported a breakthrough:

Called Colonel Karl Bendetsen in San Francisco today and talked to him about the Yamada case at Cascade Locks. He agreed to issue a travel permit to allow us to move him to another camp in the interior rather than send him to a reception center. He was very friendly on the phone and it looks like the luncheons and visits of several months ago bore fruit.³³

Mark Schrock informed the camp that he had received a call from French indicating that the government had rescinded the removal order and that Yamada would be able to transfer to another CPS camp outside the restricted zone.³⁴ One reason that Bendetsen agreed to his request, French reported, was the personal relationship between them. It is also possible that Bendetsen's opposition to General DeWitt's proclamation, which had imposed a curfew and travel restrictions on all persons of Japanese descent, was a factor. Bendetsen believed there should have been provision for exceptions, and he might have considered Yamada to be one. In addition, Bendetsen and others involved with the Japanese removal and incarceration were sensitive to adverse press. Bendetsen briefed the press about the evaluation process in the principal cities on the West Coast and asked reporters to avoid exacerbating what was already a tense situation.³⁵ The Selective Service was similarly sensitive to bad publicity, and Bendetsen may have seen Yamada's transfer to an inland camp as a convenient solution to a potential public relations nightmare.³⁶

Colonel Kosch did not come to Cascade Locks, but W. Harold Row, director of Civilian Public Service for the Brethren Service Committee, did. He arrived on July 6 to express the displeasure of Selective Service, NSBRO, and the Brethren Service Committee concerning the protest. Row emphasized both the fragility of the agreement between the churches and the Selective Service and the fact that the men were subject to the Selective Service's strict rules. Apparently, Kosch was sufficiently upset to suggest that the whole CPS program would be in danger if the men got out of hand.³⁷ He repeated the government and army position that the Japanese were not being mistreated but, rather, protected by what they called an evacuation. Row was also upset that the men had written directly to General Hershey rather than going through channels.³⁸

Row was caught between the Selective Service with its military approach and complete power over the COs and the young idealists at Cascade Locks. He was a Church of the Brethren minister and a representative of the Brethren Service Committee, and his personal position seems to have been closer to the nonresisters at Cascade Locks than to the activists. He was also trying to preserve the CPS system. Row's remarks on July 6 referred to going the "second mile." The official goals of the Brethren CPS camps included offering "a medium for the preservation and continued expression of our own and other Christian bodies" and assisting the "government in developing appropriate measures by which religious minorities which conscientiously reject military service may bear witness in times of war in a manner consistent with the principles of religious liberty and the priority of individual rights which a democratic government must guarantee."³⁹

Charles Davis, pictured here operating a radio in the Forest Service office at CPS 21, was one of the COs who protested Yamada's removal to an internment camp.

Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, Blocher D16

This raises the question of why Mark Schrock, also a Church of the Brethren minister, took such a courageous stand, supporting those who opposed Yamada's expulsion. Those who knew Schrock describe him as a man of principle who stood firm when he felt he was right.⁴⁰ It is probably significant that Schrock knew some Japanese Americans personally. In Olympia, his family had been close to the Taharas, a Japanese family that was forced to move to the Tule Lake Relocation Center, where Schrock's family visited them.⁴¹ Schrock also had strong support from the men in the camp and was close to some of the leaders, including J. Henry Dasenbrock, Charles Davis, and George Brown.⁴² After Row's remarks, Schrock apologized for not having gone through appropriate channels, but he stated that he believed the removal order was unjust and announced that he would resign before doing what he thought was wrong.

This was not the only occasion on which Schrock took a principled stand in support of the COs. In November 1942, he wrote a strong memo to Frank Rypczynski, the Forest Service ranger at Herman Creek, supporting some of the campers' refusal to work on projects they believed had military value. On one occasion, for example, the men were asked to build a lookout tower in Washington State. Near the completion of the project, several military personnel arrived to inspect the tower. The crew packed up its tools and left.⁴³ Schrock wrote to Harold Row urging the Brethren Service Committee to take a firm stand on this issue.⁴⁴

Gladden Boaz, a CO from Camp 21, pauses for a photograph during his work for the Forest Service.

OHS neg., CN 014985

Yamada agreed to accept a transfer to an inland CPS camp. A letter was prepared and sent to all CPS camps and others who were interested. It contained this statement from George Yamada:

I believe that the principle of evacuation of any people on the ground of race alone is a great wrong, both morally and socially. I want to state here a feeling of admiration and respect for Gordon Hirabayashi and the stand which he has taken in opposition to this principle. I feel that I have a great moral responsibility to oppose any such measure which violates this principle. Believing that some of you may wish to continue your protest against the whole principle of evacuation, not just in my case alone, I wish it clearly understood that I leave CPS #21 only under severe pressure of circumstances.
In accepting this transfer order to an inland CPS camp I am frankly admitting a weakness. I feel that I am not strong enough to face the issue uncompromisingly. I wish to make it clear that I have never expressed a willingness to be transferred from this area. I have stated that I would accept such a transfer, but I have not desired it. Often our words do not express our true motives but rather confuse them, as mine to the National Service Board apparently has done in this case.
In compliance with the order I am giving to Mark Schrock my preference for a transfer to some midwestern or eastern camp. I appreciate the support and backing which the fellows have given me in a matter not concerning themselves personally. When I leave I will always carry with me a sense of pride and humility at having had the opportunity to have been a part of this group, here and at Larch Mountain.⁴⁵

Yamada received travel authorization from the WDC and transfer approval from the Selective Service for a move to CPS Camp 5 at Colorado Springs. He left Cascade Locks on July 26, 1942. Shortly after his arrival at Camp 5, he wrote Mark and Mabel Schrock reporting on his new situation. He reported that he had been assigned to the dishwashing crew, where he was "putting in 8 hours of socially significant labor."⁴⁶

COs read in the library at CPS Camp 21 in about 1942.

Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, Sheets S4

At CPS 5, Yamada became more and more politically active. Near the end of his time there, he participated in a project of the Congress of Racial Equality to desegregate the local theaters. After he was arrested and spent eight days in the El Paso County jail, his attorney arranged for him to be transferred to the government-operated CPS camp at Germfask, Michigan. After less than six months in the camp, he "walked out" in defiance of the Selective Service Act and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He served time in the federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky, where he participated in an action organized by Bayard Rustin to desegregate the dining hall. As a result of that action he was transferred to Danbury, Connecticut, where he served additional time until his release in 1946. Like many COs, he did not serve his full sentence.⁴⁷

WHILE NOT A SATISFACTORY repudiation of the government's removal program, the confrontation at Cascade Locks stands as the only national protest against removal. There were very few protests of the Japanese removal, most of them isolated actions of courageous individuals with small groups of supporters. At Camp 21, a principled action by a small group of men prompted reversal of a decision by the Western Defense Command and forced the War Relocation Authority to back down. The successful Yamada protest not only galvanized the men at Cascade Locks, but it also attracted broad support throughout the CPS system.

The courageous actions of Mark Schrock and the men of CPS 21 illustrate several themes that run through the story of the World War II COs. First is the resistance to conscription. A vocal minority of CPS men believed conscription itself was wrong and that a free society had no right to draft them and force them to work in violation of the dictates of their consciences. For men with this conviction, the removal and detention of Japanese was just another example of what had been done to them. Second is the passion for social justice. Many COs struggled to make a meaningful contribution during the war, but the work in most of the camps, supervised by the Forest Service, the National Park Service, or the Agriculture Department, did not seem to be "of national importance." This frustration led to the development of what were called special projects, particularly work in mental hospitals and training schools, public health work such as the "hookworm project" in Florida, and medical experiments in which the COs were test subjects.⁴⁸ COs also worked for racial justice. Few COs entered camp with a previous concern on this issue, but as they encountered instances of discrimination or segregation they were compelled to think about what their religious or philosophical commitments demanded of them. There are several instances of COs standing for racial justice both in the camps and in prisons.⁴⁹ The Yamada protest is just one example.⁵⁰

One of the objectives of the Brethren CPS program was "to demonstrate and extend the spirit of brotherhood and justice as a way of life which leads to world-mindedness and to international peace and security."⁵¹ In responding to the order to evacuate George Yamada, the men of CPS 21 showed that at their best the COs exemplified this ideal. Their protest challenged the arbitrary authority of both the Selective Service System and the WDC and resulted in a small moment of justice in one of the tragic incidents in American history.

Notes

Most of the original documents that form the basis of this article were collected by Charles Davis, my father-in-law. The stories of his CPS experience that he told me over the years have also been important in understanding this incident. Julian Schrock, the son of Mark Schrock, kindly provided a privately printed memoir of his family's years at Cascade Locks and other materials from his father's files, which helped me understand life at CPS 21 and provided insight into his father's character. I am grateful to Susan Davis Kovac for reading many drafts of this article and for providing both encouragement and useful critique. Thanks also to Charles Biggs, J.D. Bing, Klancy Clark deNevers, Millie Gimmel, Roger Jones, Rachel Kovac, Mark Luprecht, Paul Merchant, Donna W. Sherwood, and John T. Winemiller for reading versions of this article and for making helpful suggestions for its improvement.
After the death of Charles Davis on July 4, 2002, a file containing a draft of this article and supporting documents, including letters, memos, diaries, and newsletters, was found among his papers. Davis's draft was revised and expanded for publication, and this article is dedicated to his memory. All of these documents are in the Charles Davis Collection, in the possession of the author [hereafter Davis Collection].

^1. J. H. Dasenbrock, To the Beat of a Different Drummer (Winona, Minn.: Northland Press of Winona, 1989); Julian Schrock's memoir of Cascade Locks.

^2. See Ellen Eisenberg, " 'As Truly American as Your Son': Voicing Opposition to Internment in Three West Coast Cities," Oregon Historical Quarterly 104:4 (Winter 2004): 542–65.

^3. See A.N. Keim and G.M. Stoltzfus, The Politics of Consciences: The Historic Peace Churches and America at War, 1917–1955 (Scottsdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1988).

^4. For the text of the letter, see M.Q. Sibley and P.E. Jacob, Conscription of Conscience: The American State and the Conscientious Objector, 1940–1947 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1952), 485–6.

^5. Ibid., 50.

^6. See ibid., Chap. 4.

^7. Ibid., 111.

^8. Ibid., Chap. 6.

^9. Ibid., 202.

^10. J. tenBroek, E.N. Barnhart, and F.W. Matson, Prejudice, War and the Constitution: Causes and Consequences of the Evacuation of the Japanese Americans in World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), 100–101.

^11. Ibid., 110.

^12. Individuals of Italian or German descent were apprehended, but none of the 114,000 persons of Italian descent or the 97,000 persons of German descent living in the restricted zone were included in the mass evacuation. See tenBroek, Barnhart, and Matson, Prejudice, War and the Constitution; P. Irons, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983); and R. Daniels, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II, rev. ed. (New York: Hill and Wang, 2004).

^13. G. Yamada, "My Story of World War II," in A Few Small Candles: War Resisters of World War II Tell their Stories, ed. L. Gara and L.M. Gara (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1999), 194–204.

^14. Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience, 230. See also A.N. Keim, The CPS Story: An Illustrated History of Civilian Public Service (Intercourse, Penn.: Good Books, 1990).

^15. The Columbian (Cascade Locks, Oregon), June 6, 1942.

^16. "Information for New Arrivals at CPS Camp 21, Cascade Locks, Oregon," April 1943, Davis Collection.

^17. Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience, 50.

^18. See L. Eisan, Pathways of Peace: A History of the Civilian Public Service Program Administered by the Brethren Service Committee (Elgin, Ill.: Brethren Publishing House, 1948). For a personal account of life in CPS Camp 21 and some other camps, see J. H. Dasenbrock, To the Beat of a Different Drummer.

^19. The date of the telegram is unknown, but it was sometime between June 21 and June 29, 1942. It is likely that Schrock would have spent some time talking with Yamada and others whom he trusted before making a general announcement. The text was reproduced in a letter sent by the members of CPS 21 to other camps. An entry in the diary of camp member Richard C. Anderson, dated May 31, 1942, indicates that Yamada knew as early as April that he would be ordered to leave the camp. According to Anderson, Yamada had been told by Colonel Kosch, who had visited the camp in April, that he would have to leave and go to some other camp in the interior of the country. Yamada was beginning to think about his best course of action. The relevant parts of Anderson's diary were sent to Charles Davis on February 18, 1989, Davis Collection.

^20. Quoted from a copy of a letter from Mark Schrock to W. Harold Row, Davis Collection. Excerpts from the letter appeared in The Columbian, July 4, 1942.

^21. The source for the chronology is the private diary of Lloyd A. Hall. Dr. Hall sent copies of the relevant pages to Charles Davis on June 29, 1989, and they are in the Davis Collection. Additional details are from the Anderson diary.

^22. D. Hurwitz and Craig Simpson, eds., Against the Tide: Pacifist Resistance in the Second World War, An Oral History (New York: War Resisters League, 1984), 40.

^23. The Columbian, July 4, 1942.

^24. An original mimeograph copy of the letter is in the Davis Collection. See also The Columbian, July 4, 1942. This Charles Davis should not be confused with Charles E. Davis, who was also a CO in Oregon CPS camps during World War II.

^25. Gandhian thought was important to many COs who used his philosophy as the basis of their resistance to war and, in some cases, to conscription. For others, particularly Mennonites, Gandhian techniques were purely political and had no place in their philosophy of nonresistance. See Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience, esp. Chaps. 2 and 18.

^26. An airmail letter dated July 6, 1942, from Camp President Charles Davis to other CPS camps and interested persons contains excerpts from nine supporting telegrams that had been received. Many of these excerpts indicate that telegrams had been sent to either General Hershey or Colonel Bendetsen or both. I have not found a complete collection or list of telegrams sent. A copy of this letter is in the Davis Collection.

^27. An original mimeograph copy of this letter, dated July 21, 1942, is in the Davis Collection.

^28. See Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience, 312–13.

^29. See ibid., Chap. 8. The oral histories in Gara and Gara, A Few Small Candles, are primarily those of activist COs. See also James Tracy, Direct Action: Radical Pacifism from the Union Eight to the Chicago Seven (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

^30. tenBroek, Barnhart, and Matson, Prejudice, War and the Constitution, 204–205; J.H. Dasenbrock, To the Beat of a Different Drummer, 38–39.

^31. See Irons, Justice at War.

^32. Mitchell Lee Robinson, "Civilian Public Service During World War II: The Dilemmas of Conscience and Conscription in a Free Society" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1990), 329–330; Anderson diary, July 4, 1942.

^33. The Paul French diary is in the Center on Conscience and War collection, DG 025, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The diary is a restricted document and can be accessed only with the permission of the Center for Conscience and War, the successor to NSBRO. The relevant pages are in the Davis Collection and are used by permission.

^34. Anderson diary.

^35. K.C. deNevers, The Colonel and the Pacifist: Karl Bendetsen, Perry Saito and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2004), 134, 138–40.

^36. See Robinson, "Civilian Public Service During World War II," esp. Chap. 7.

^37. The anger of the Selective Service administration was long lived. On September 7, 1943, W. Harold Row wrote Mark Schrock to inform him of an unfavorable report on Cascade Locks by Col. McLean. Row also talked with Col. Kosch, who had negative things to say about Schrock. As an explanation, Row wrote: "Apparently they have not forgotten the Yamada case." Earlier in 1943, Charles Davis was nominated by the Brethren Service Committee to attend a CPS Administrator's School in Washington, D.C. All such travel had to be cleared with Selective Service, and permission was refused. Row received this telegram: "Selective Service refuses to pay transportation Charles Davis to Washington Connected with Yamada protest" and wrote Schrock on February, 2, 1943, to explain. Davis was cleared to attend a later school. In spite of the trouble they had caused him the previous year, Row's letters indicate strong personal support for both Schrock and Davis. Both letters are in the Davis Collection.

^38. Row's remarks to the camp are reported in detail in Anderson's diary, July 6, 1942.

^39. L. Eisan, Pathways of Peace, 47. The term second mile comes from the New Testament command. It epitomized the service philosophy of many in the historic peace churches, particularly the Mennonites and Brethren. They believed that the testimony of love could be expressed even within the framework of conscription. If compelled to go one mile, the nonresistant Christian was willing to go a second mile voluntarily.

^40. My perspective on Schrock has been enriched by reading Julian Schrock's memoir of Cascade Locks and by telephone conversations with surviving members of CPS 21 and Mae Henderson, Schrock's volunteer secretary in Olympia (Henderson married Bill Henderson, a CO who spent some time at CPS 21). A copy of Julian Schrock's memoir is in the possession of the author.

^41. Julian Schrock memoir.

^42. George E. Brown Jr. left Cascade Locks for service in the military. After the war, he earned degrees in physics, went into politics, and served eighteen terms in the U.S. Congress as a representative from California.

^43. This story comes from Charles Davis by way of Julian Schrock's memoir.

^44. The memo to Rypczynski and the letter to Row are in Julian Schrock's memoir. See also Dasenbrock, To the Beat of a Different Drummer, 63.

^45. The letter, signed by Charles Davis as camp president, is in the Davis Collection. It was also published in The Columbian, July 7, 1942. In a letter to Charles Davis on March 24, 1989, Yamada suggested that this statement was actually written by someone else to provide an explanation.

^46. This handwritten letter, dated August 6, 1942, was kindly provided by Julian Schrock. A photocopy is in the possession of the author.

^47. Yamada, "My Story of World War II."

^48. Those COs who worked in mental hospitals were so appalled by what they found that they started a movement that eventually reformed the care of the mentally ill in the United States. See Eisan, Pathways of Peace; Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience; and A. Sareyan, The Turning Point: How Men of Conscience Brought about Major Change of America's Mentally Ill (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1994).

^49. Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience, Chap. 8. See also Gara and Gara, A Few Small Candles.

^50. The Yamada incident is not mentioned in Eisa, Pathways of Peace, or Sibley and Jacob, Conscription of Conscience. It does not appear in any of the standard histories of the Japanese removal. Other than Yamada's own brief account, a few paragraphs in J. Henry Dasenbrock's memoir, a paragraph in Richard C. Anderson's Peace Was in Their Hearts (Watsonville, Calif.: Correlan Publications, 1994), and a page in Rachel Waltner Goossen's, Women Against the Good War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), I have found no published references to the case.

^51. Eisan, Pathways of Peace, 47.

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