Update:
Thursday, April 24, 2008 Sad news from Mountain View, California tonight, from Kenji
Taguma of the Nichi Bei Times.
George Nozawa was a quiet, thoughtful man who provided a number of
the newspaper clippings and primary documents that are seen in our
film, including his own draft card! The photo from his collection shows
George
on the
right
with his good friend, FPC leader Frank Emi:
I am saddened
to report that George Nozawa, said to be the unofficial historian
of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee, passed away on Monday,
April 21.
Details are
still somewhat sketchy, but he's been in failing health recently.
I've learned of his death through the Koshiyamas in San Jose,
who were informed by George's daughter (I believe that he also
has one son).
George has
played a central role in the camaraderie between the Amache (Granada)
/ Tucsonian resisters and Heart Mountain resisters over the years,
during a time when the story of the principled stand of the resisters
was rapidly coming to light in the 1990s. I remember inviting
him to the two Tucsonian (resisters) reunions in Sacramento that
I organized, and his compilation of articles of Amache resisters
-- and their arrests and trials -- are still a fond piece of
my collection. I am indebted to him for helping to reclaim a
piece of history.
Over the years,
he has meticulously clipped resister-related articles and has
generously shared them with others, myself included.
Last year,
my brother Mark and I visited George and his wife, taking along
Professor Yukio Morita of Kanazawa University -- whose comprehensive
book on Nisei resisters [pdf, 3MB] helped to document for
eternity the stories of George, my father and other resisters.
Since George
lived about a couple of blocks from my brother in Mountain View,
my dad would often visit George when at my brother's, and share
some cherished memories.
I will remember
George as someone who was straight and narrow. I will truly miss
George, another personal hero who may be gone, yet will not be
forgotten.
We're unsure
about any services, but it might be good to check in the
San Jose Mercury News in the next couple of days. I hear that
George
was a member of the Mountain View Buddhist Temple.
-- Kenji
Kenji
also sends this link to an article in the San
Bernardino County Sun about the latest performance
of "A Community Divided" on April 23 by Frank
Emi, Yosh
Kuromiya,
Paul Tsuneishi and Momo Yashima, with a great 9-picture
photo gallery of the event.
Amerasia
Journal in January published a special "wartime
edition" that refocuses attention on the Heart Mountain Fair
Play Committee, through
the lens
of the
ongoing case involving Lt. Ehren Watada. The issue is titled "World,
War, Watada," and features letters from Heart Mountain
resister Mits Koshiyama and supporter Paul Tsuneishi, both of whom
are featured
in our film. According to the UCLA
news release:
Koshiyama, a
Heart Mountain World War II draft resister, ends his personal letter
to Lt. Ehren
Watada, as follows: "Do what your
conscience tells you what to do. We got punished by a prejudiced
court but in the end, we prevailed."
Writer
Frank Chin contributes "A Call to Resist," his take on Watada and
the World II resisters, which also appears
on his blog.
Chin asks:
Lt. Ehren Watada, a Hawaiian Japanese Chinese American, exercises
the rights the resisters defended, and brings the questions the
Nisei heard tossed about in the camp war years, back to the present
day. Will Japanese Americans react any differently than they did
on their 9/11, Dec. 7, 1941?
There's
also an interview with fimmakaer Curtis Choy and the making of
"Watada, Resister," which is linked below. Thanks to editor
Russell C. Leong for referencing our film in his introductory
editorial, "Is Resistance Your Real Name?," and bringing some of
you to this site.
Thanks
for visiting if you've come here after viewing "Watada,
Resister" on YouTube or MySpace,
or followed the link from Amerasia Journal.
Watch the video below to see the first part of
what's billed as "The
historic meeting of young Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to deploy
to Iraq,
and WW2
resisters."
It was
shot in Seattle and edited by filmmaker Curtis
Choy on Jan. 27, 2007, as a way of connecting Lt. Watada with the
Nisei draft resisters who he describes as an "inspiration" and
who in this video express their pride in him and their support
for Watada's
own principled stand. You will see and hear Heart Mountain resistance
leader Frank
Emi, draft resister Yosh Kuromiya, and their friend Paul Tsuneishi.
If you look carefully you can see our poster for Conscience
and the Constitution in Frank Emi's living room behind Yosh.
Click
on the second screen to see Part 2 of their conversation. Listen
in particular to Watada's measured and thoughtful challenge to
all Americans to decide where they
stand on the war, and one's moral obligation to act if you do
have a stand. He emerges in the video as a remarkable young man.
Give it a listen.
As
Yosh says in his prepared statement, the judge in his case in 1944
ruled that the 63
young
Heart Mountain
boys
could
not
raise the
unconstitutionality
of mass incarceration as a
defense in their trial
for draft resistance. The jury could only rule on whether
or not they
failed to report for induction, and convicted the lot.
In 2007,
although the cases are different, a military judge at Fort Lewis
south of Seattle ruled in January that Army 1st Lt. Ehren
Watada could not
raise the legality of the war in Iraq as a defense for his refusal to deploy
there. The Seattle
Times article has links to court documents in
Watada's court-martial trial. See also the Seattle
P-I.
The
case of Watada, who has refused
deployment to Iraq in principled protest against what he
believes is an illegal war of occupation, has led many to compare
his stand
to that of the WW2 Nisei draft resisters. He himself made the
link in his comments to Ben Hamamoto of the Nichi
Bei Times:
As a Japanese
American, Watada sees historical parallels between himself and those
who resisted the World War II incarceration. “(The
resisters) said ‘we’re Japanese American’ and we
are part of this country no matter what the president says. They faced
ostracization and imprisonment, but it was shown many years later
that they were correct… What I’m doing is no different.”
Read
more.
The
parallel is not precise. The Heart Mountain resisters did not object
to fighting
in WW2, only to the unconstitutionality of the forced incarceration
of themselves and their families. But as I talked last year
with John Iwasaki when he called from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
it
hit
me that the resisters and Lt. Watada do share this one similarity:
both put themselves on the line to object to actions by their government.
Iwasaki was localizing a wire story, "Japanese
Americans criticize Watada," reporting a
joint statement from 9 Japanese American veterans groups
to publicly denounce Watada for disrespecting "a legacy
of military service by Japanese American soldiers dating back
to World War II."
"No Japanese
Americans did anything like that, and that is why Japanese Americans
are so upset," (Robert) Wada said, (a charter president of
the Japanese American Korean War Veterans). "He is doing something
that has never been done by Japanese Americans."
That's not exactly
the case, said Seattle resident Frank Abe. He produced "Conscience
and the Constitution," a documentary about Japanese Americans
who resisted the World War II draft because they and their families
were held in internment camps for years after Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Wada is "overlooking
the fact that 315 Japanese Americans in World War II resisted the
draft as a means of protesting the forced incarceration of their
families," Abe said Wednesday. Read
more.
Our film
continues to provide different points of entry and different perspectives
for audiences across the country, including university students in
Minnesota, a humanities program in a town north of Denver, a Chicana/o
cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary art organization in San Diego,
and the Seattle City Council
screened it during a brown bag luncheon, as a supplement
to their reading of Julie Otuska's fine novel, When The Emperor
Was Divine:
"There
were audible gasps during the showing --and many sat in silence
long after its completion. I'm so impressed with that work, Frank.
It's a great piece that will endlessly inform and educate. It impressively
communicates that there were heros fighting for freedoms on our
own soil when the nation was at war ostensibly to defend freedom!
I believe the ultimate outcome of their struggle was to reveal that
the fight for justice against oppression will always be necessary.
Your piece effectively shows the almost overwhelming challenge these
gentle people bravely faced when they stepped forward with commitment
to ethically respond to their oppression with honesty. It's a simple
story really, but powerful. Thanks, so much Frank. I hope you know
what you've contributed. It's a great piece of work. Much admiration."
-- Jackie O'Ryan, Communications Specialist, The Seattle City Council
"I
am writing to request permission to screen Conscience and the
Constitution at the non-profit artspace Voz
Alta as part of a series I am curating there called Movies
That Matter … Because San Diego is a jumping off point
for the Marines and also the site of a growing resistance movement
(see the case of Pable Paredes, Ali Wassaf Hassoun, the Ya No project,
Guerreroazteca project), I feel that Conscience and the Constitution
has a very important message for people here. In addition, as a
subtext to the video, as you know, there is a distinct parallel
between the climate surrounding Japanese-Americans and Japanese
residents during WWII and that facing Middle Eastern Americans today,
and with San Diego as the location of a large Middle Eastern population,
as well as a decidedly red slice of California, it would behoove
us to think carefully abut what national paranoia and political
manipulation are capable of … I am curating this series in
an effort to get people to think about issues of civil liberty,
race, media representation, and national conscience."
-- Rebecca Romani, Arabs Anonymous/No Hay Moros
"I
am the co-advisor for a student organization called Asian Students
in Action at St. Cloud State University. They are organizing a week-long
on-campus event in April called Social Activism in Asian America.
As part of the event, I wanted to show your film on April 21 for
a campus wide audience... I thought your film was important in discussing
not only the issue of what constitutes an American and what it means
to be loyal, but also the difficulties of social activism especially
when it creates a division within the community. Moreover, your
film itself is a perfect example of social activism – the
use of documentaries to educate people."
-- Dr. Kyoko Kishimoto, Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic
Studies
"Just
wanted to let you know that Conscience and the Constitution
is a unit of a seven part series that the Estes
Park Public Library Foundation will be presenting this summer.
The Foundation has a We the People Grant from the Colorado Endowment
for the Humanities that is titled "Pivotal Events in American
Constitutional Hisotry: Their Impact on We the People." The
video will be presented on July 30th"
-- Catherine K. Speer, Estes Park Public Library Foundation
The Seattle
Times last year published a capsule
review of our film, in advance of our screening at the Seattle
Public Library as part of the "Seattle Reads" program for
Julie Otsuka's 2002 novel, When
the Emperor Was Divine. You can read the full article here
but this is book reviewer Michael Upchurch's take on our film:
First up is
Frank Abe's Conscience and the Constitution (2000),
about a group of draft-age internees who refused to volunteer for
military service or, later, to be drafted, until their and their
families' civil rights were restored. Abe, a former senior reporter
for KIRO Newsradio and KIRO-TV, does a fine job of tracing how this
draft-resistance arose, and how it became such a bitterly divisive
issue within the Japanese-American community. The Japanese American
Citizens League — which adapted more of a "my country
right or wrong" attitude to internment and military service
— was particularly harsh in its judgment of the draft resisters.
It would be
more than 50 years before any reconciliation between the JACL and
the draft resisters was effected. The eyewitnesses in this hourlong
film are eloquent, wry and level-headed as they make their case
about the constitutional principles at stake. Abe has done an admirable
job of illuminating the issues behind the divisiveness.
My
review
of Frank Chin's book on the resistance, Born in the USA, is
now published in the special "A Tribute to Miné Okubo"
issue of Amerasia Journal, Volume 30:2, 2004. It is available
for $13 per issue plus tax and $4 handling from: UCLA Asian American
Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, Box 951546, Los Angeles,
CA 90095-1546. For more information, call (310) 825-2968, e-mail aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu
or visit the center's Web
site. However, by special permission, you can also read it here:
... Despite
its classification, this is not a dispassionate history without
an agenda. The author was unable to convince his publisher to market
the book as a “documentary novel” in the Dos Passos
mode. It does him no disservice to say that Frank Chin despises
JACL for betraying the Nisei Dream as much as he despises Kingston,
Tan, and Hwang for passing off faked Chinese folktales as real.
With his powers as a novelist, Chin shapes his material to fit a
single vision, with JACL as antagonist, so readers should be aware
of pieces that get left on the cutting room floor .... Read
the entire review....
Chin
dismisses the danger of Malkin's
new book, In Defense of Internment, and the traction it has
gained among Fox News Channel devotees and historical revisionists
eager for a means to inflame racial and cultural fears. For a full-bodied
critique of the Malkin book, see Professor Eric Muller's 18-post
blog revealing the flaws in her work. Read
the recent Seattle Times, "Debate
lingers over internment of Japanese-Americans," to see how
the ghost of Lillian Baker lives on in Malkin, her sleek new clone,
in the Bainbridge school system. Walt and Millie Woodward would be
ashamed.
See
our full page devoted to the JACL
apology to the Heart Mountain resistersand watch a 70-second
video clip of Heart Mountain resistance leader Frank
Emi's remarks on May 11, 2002. Even as the Japanese American Citizens
League was apologizing to Emi and others for its suppression of wartime
resistance, he was challenging the group to go further and address
the question of its wartime collaboration with incarceration [requires
free Quicktime Player].
For
homework help, please see our PBS Online site at www.pbs.org/conscience
for online documents and an online Classroom Guide, and send a comment,
compliment or complaint via the PBS Talkback
page. To preview the tape, see a QuickTime
Preview or see two short video clips from our film now online
in our STUDY CENTER. Teachers can download
our newly-updated Classroom Guide as a 328
KB Word document.
PBS
SYNOPSIS: CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION: This award-winning
and controversial documentary reveals the untold story of the largest
organized resistance to the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans,
and the suppression of that resistance by Japanese-American leaders.
(CC, Stereo, one hour)
In World
War II a handful of young Americans refused to be drafted from the
American concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Organized
under the banner of the Fair Play Committee, they were ready to fight
for their country, but not before the government restored their rights
as U.S. citizens and released their families from camp.
It was
the largest organized resistance to incarceration, leading to the
largest trial for draft resistance in U.S. history. The government
prosecuted them as criminals; Japanese American leaders and veterans
ostracized them as traitors. The resisters served two years in prison,
and for the next 50 were written out of the official history of Japanese
America. Only recently have we rediscovered the resisters and restored
them to the community. Through their eyes we delve into the heart
of the Japanese American conscience and a public debate that is still
alive today.
AWARDS:
BEST FEATURE FILM: VC FilmFest 2000, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film
& Video Festival
BEST DOCUMENTARY: San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
BEST DOCUMENTARY: New York International Independent Film & Video
Festival
BEST OF FESTIVAL: Vermont International Film Festival (War and Peace
category)
BEST MUSIC SCORE: Emerald City Awards, Seattle
NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD: Asian American Journalists Association
AMERICAN SCENE AWARD: American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists
DARUMA CIVIL RIGHTS AWARD: Sacramento Asian American community
"Conscience
and the Constitution" is produced by Frank Abe in association
with the Independent Television Service,
with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and
the Civil Liberties Public
Education Fund, created by Congress to sponsor research on the
wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. Additional funding is
provided by the Motoda Foundation of Seattle, the Anheuser-Busch
Companies, Brooks and Sumi Iwakiri, and 45 individual Friends
of the Fair Play Committee.
This
Web site and the companion PBS
Online site are made possible by a grant from the California
Civil Liberties Public Education Program, created by the California
State Legislature and administered by the California State Library.
Additional support provided by Michi and Walter Weglyn.
I am saddened
to report that George Nozawa, said to be the unofficial historian
of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee, passed away on Monday,
April 21.
See
our full page devoted to the 
For
homework help, please see our PBS Online site at 
