Prisons and Patriots: The "Tucsonian" Draft Resisters and Citizenship during World War II Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Lyon, Cherstin Marie Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 05:54:46 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193911 PRISONS AND PATRIOTS: THE “TUCSONIAN” DRAFT RESISTERS AND CITIZENSHIP DURING WAR II by Cherstin M. Lyon ________________________ Copyright Cherstin Marie Lyon 2006 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2006 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Cherstin M. Lyon entitled Prisons and Patriots: The “Tucsonian” Draft Resisters and Citizenship during World War II and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________ Date: December 19, 2005 Karen Anderson _______________________________________________ Date: December 19, 2005 Sarah Deutsch _______________________________________________ Date: December 19, 2005 Jack Marietta Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: December 19, 2005 Dissertation Director: Karen Anderson 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Cherstin M. Lyon 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to all those who have influenced this project over the past six years, many of whom are not listed here. I owe many thanks to the members of my committee, Karen Anderson, Sarah Deutsch and Jack Marietta, for the hours they spent reading and commenting on multiple draft of this project. I owe a special thanks to Sarah Deutsch for bringing the topic to my attention in the first place and for the extra lengths to which she went to support the completion of the project. I am indebted to Mary Farrell. It was at the invitation of Mary Farrell, Nicole Branton, and Peter Taylor from the Heritage Office of the Coronado National Forest that I first became acquainted with the Tucsonians. This project has received generous funding from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP); the Coronado National Forest; the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies; both the Graduate College and History Department at the University of Arizona; Phi Alpha Theta; and the PEO. Thanks to Jane Beckwith, Frank Chin, Frank Emi, Art Hansen, Erica Harth, and Gary Okihiro for their formal and informal comments on my research. I also owe a special thanks to Carlos Aguirre, Matthew Dennis, and Peggy Pascoe, each of whom helped me mature as a historian. Finally, I must thank those who influenced this dissertation the most, without whom this dissertation would not be possible: Joe and Tee Norikane, Noboru Taguma, Hideo Takeuchi, Susumu Yenokida, Ken and Kay Yoshida, Harry Yoshikawa, Takashi Hoshizaki, Yosh Kuromiya, Frank Emi, and Gordon Hirabayashi. 5 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the Tucsonians: Archie Amate, Dix Asai, Fred Asai, James Heya, Irvin Hirabayashi, Harry Ioka, Flu Inaba, George Ishimoto, Harry Ishimoto, Tak Ishimoto, Yoshiharu Ishikawa, Iwaharu Isomura, Hideo Ito, George Izuno, Joe Kashiwagi, Jim Kawasaki, Thomas Kawasaki, Yoshi Kubo, Kazuo Kunitake, Sadao Nadabayashi, Yoshitatsu Nakaguma, Joseph Nakahira, Bill Nakasaki, Frank Naruto, Joe Norikane, Noboru Taguma, George Takahashi, Frank Takamoto, George Takamoto, Hideo Takeuchi, Riyuo Uyeda, Terry Uyemoto, Hiroshi Yamauchi, George Yamazumi, Ben Yenokida, Min Yenokida, Sam Yenokida, Susumu Yenokida, Ken Yoshida, Sock Yoshida and Harry Yoshikawa 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………..7 ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………8 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..….9 A Footprint in the Sands of Time……………………………………………….….14 CHAPTER 1, NISEI CITIZENSHIP: “BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA”…………………………………………….…16 Issei Immigration and Exclusion …………………………….…………...…….….18 Nisei Birth and Citizenship.……………………………….……………...…....…..21 Distinct Generations of Nisei …………………………….…………...……...……27 Issei and Nisei Expectations …………………………………………………....….36 Americanization and Citizenship in Public School ...……………………………..40 Unintended Lessons in Citizenship ……………………………………...…………44 CHAPTER 2, NISEI CITIZENSHIP TRANSFORMED …………………………….49 Pearl Harbor ...……………………………………………………………………..50 Loyalty Versus Citizenship ………………….……………………………………..53 Nisei Behind Barbed Wire ………………….……………………………………...62 Nisei Citizenship under Attack …………….………………………………………65 Military Service and the Nisei ……………………………………………………..68 JACL Collaboration ……………………………………………………………….74 CHAPTER 3, LOYALTY AND RESISTANCE: REINVENTING NISEI CITIZENSHIP ………………………………………………………………..80 The Broader Context of Wartime Citizenship ……………………………………..82 Propaganda and Resistance ………………………………………………………...84 The Yoshida Family’s Response to Registration …………………………………107 The End of the Registration Crisis at Topaz ………………………….….……….111 Unexpected Results of Registration: Prisons and Patriotism ………….….………113 CHAPTER 4, THE OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP …………...….….………..120 Restoration of the Draft and Protest at Topaz …………………...……..…………121 Response to the Draft at Amache …………………………………....….………..125 Creating Heroes: The Propaganda of Patriotism …………………….……………147 Heroes in Death: Memorializing Fallen Soldiers …………………………………153 CHAPTER 5, PRISON AND PUNISHMENT ……………………………………...158 From County Jail to the Tucson Road Camp ……………………………………..160 Coming “Home” a Felon …………………………………………………….……179 Returning “Home” to California ………………………………………………….184 CONCLUSION, HISTORICAL MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION: THE TUCSONIAN DRAFT “RESISTERS OF CONSCIENCE”……….…..189 Reunions, Redress, and Reconciliation …………………….……………………...190 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………..207 7 LIST OF TABLES Table 1, Nisei Births from 1910 to 1930…………………….……………………….35 Table 2, Issei and Nisei Populations Compared, 1910 to 1930………………………35 8 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the lives and wartime resistance of a group of forty- one Nisei men (Americans of Japanese ancestry) who resisted the draft as a means of protesting their incarceration during World War II. While serving time in the same federal prison for violating Selective Service laws, they became acquainted for the first time and remained life-long friends after the war’s end. They supported each other for more than sixty years amidst pressure to hide their identities as resisters, because the majority of Nisei preferred to forget this chapter in American history. This group called themselves the “Tucsonians,” and this dissertation begins to tell their story. This study is based on oral histories and archival research and examines citizenship as a contested relationship between individuals and the state. 9 INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines the lives and wartime resistance of a group of forty- one Nisei men (Americans of Japanese ancestry) who resisted the draft as a means of protesting their incarceration during World War II.1 While serving time in the same federal prison for violating Selective Service laws, they became acquainted for the first time and remained life-long friends after the war’s end. They supported each other for more than sixty years amidst pressure to hide their identities as resisters, because the vast majority of Nisei preferred to forget this chapter in American history. This group called themselves the “Tucsonians,” and this dissertation begins to tell their story. In the first year of World War II, Nisei lost their citizenship in symbolic and practical ways. Selective Service reclassified them as “enemy aliens” despite the fact that they were American-born citizens. The Western Defense Command of the Army had euphemistically called them “non-aliens” in official proclamations ordering all persons of Japanese ancestry to evacuate their homes and turn themselves over to federal authorities for “relocation.” The War Relocation Authority held them, along with their alien parents, under armed guard without due process of law.2 1 A note on terminology: Nisei means second generation. These were the American-born children of Japanese immigrants. The first generation are called “Issei,” third generation “Sansei,” and fourth generation “Yonsei.” “Nikkei” is a Japanese word for all Japanese Americans and does not differentiate