When President Roosevelt mandated the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, 315 Japanese Americans decided to protest the executive order by resisting the war draft.

At the time, the draft resisters were denounced by leaders in the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Saburo Kido, then president of JACL, said in 1944, 'The group definitely should be charged with sedition, especially the leaders.'

Now, more than half a decade later, the nation's oldest Asian-American civil rights group will apologize in a public ceremony that has been more than two years in the making. The ceremony, which is open to the public, will take place May 11 in San Francisco, Calif., and will include remarks by resisters.

"The organization should've made the apology long ago," said John Tadashi, JACL's national director. "Many of these men are in their 80s now. The time has come to put this behind us."

The ceremony marks a watershed moment for the Japanese American community, which many believe was shattered by Executive Order 9066. Frank Abe, director and producer of the PBS documentary "Conscience and the Constitution", which details the story of the draft resisters, points out that these men were almost written out of history.

"The versions of the reactions to the internment I heard growing up were that Japanese Americans either had an attitude of self resignation, or decided to fight in the war," Abe said. "That never rang true for me."

By fighting to uphold their Constitutional rights, the draft resisters were just as patriotic as those who fought in the war, Abe said. "The World War II vets were brave, but they weren't the only heroes."

One group of 85 resisters issued a statement in 1943 that read, "We...would gladly sacrifice our lives to protect and uphold the principles of our country as set forth in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights ... [we have] a right to ask for a full restoration of our rights before being drafted into the armed forces."

The wartime courts rejected the resisters constitutional challenge and convicted 282 of breaking the selective service law. The resisters were sentenced to prison for an average of two years. Their actions were legally vindicated in 1947 when President Truman pardoned the resisters and recognized their stand for civil rights.

By apologizing to the draft resisters, however, the JACL runs the risk of angering Japanese American WWII vets. "They have to be careful not to alienate veterans," Abe said. "It's a real tightrope they're walking."

"The ceremony does not diminish the honor and respect we owe the Japanese American soldiers, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our freedoms," said National JACL President Floyd Mori. "An apology will be given for JACL's neglect in recognizing then that these resisters of conscience were justified in their protest and that this neglect has been the source of great mental and social anguish among the resisters and their families."

The apology will address the feelings of bitterness that have plagued the Japanese American community for the past 60 years, Abe said. "Many felt the JACL sold out in trying to curry favor with the government," he said.

Today, the JACL is a different organization than it was in the 1940s, and Abe said the public apology is a credit to the group's current leadership.