|
The Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee was a group organized in 1943 to protest the draft of Nisei (U.S. citizens born to Japanese immigrant parents), from Japanese American concentration camps during World War II. Kiyoshi Okamoto formed a "Fair Play Committee of One" in response to the War Relocation Authority's controversial loyalty questionnaire in 1943, and was later joined by Frank Emi and other inmates of the Heart Mountain camp (from which the Committee took its name). With seven older leaders at its core, the Committee's membership grew as draft notices began to arrive in camp. To challenge their forced "evacuation" by the government, they refused to volunteer or participate in the draft, but the Committee required its members to be citizens loyal to the United States willing to serve if their rights were restored. By June 1944, several dozen young men had been arrested and charged by the U.S. government with felony draft evasion. While the camp at Poston, Arizona produced the largest group of draft resisters, at 106, the Fair Play Committee was the most prominent inmate organization to protest the draft, and the rate of draft resistance at Heart Mountain (out of a much smaller population) was the highest of any camp. The number of resisters eventually numbered nearly 300 from all ten camps. A total of 85 Heart Mountain resisters and the Committee leaders were convicted for Selective Service Act violations and sentenced to three to five years in federal prison. In 1947, they were pardoned by President Harry S. Truman, but for decades the Fair Play Committee members were largely seen within the Japanese American community as traitors and cowards (especially when pitted against the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team — also known as the "Purple Heart Battalion"). In the post-war years, Japanese Americans struggled to re-establish their place in American society, but in the 1970s a movement began to gain redress for their forced imprisonment in the concentration camps; as former inmates spoke out about their wartime experiences, attitudes towards the resisters began to change. Since the late 20th century, the draft resisters have been recognized as objectors of conscience with an equally important place in the incarceration history, although their legacy remains a point of contention for many. In 2002, the Japanese American Citizens League, which during the war was a vocal opponent of the Committee and worked with the FBI to prosecute its members, formally apologized for its role in their imprisonment and subsequent ostracization. ==Background and formation of the FPC== After Japan's December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the United States into World War II, Japanese Americans quickly became conflated with the enemy, in large part due to existing prejudices and competing business interests. Especially on the West Coast, where the mainland Japanese American population and the nativist groups who lobbied for their incarceration were concentrated, political leaders and well-connected citizens pushed for a solution to the "Japanese problem." On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing military commanders to designate areas from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Over the next few months some 112,000 to 120,000 West Coast Japanese were forcibly removed to inland concentration camps. Two-thirds of them were American citizens born in the United States. Heart Mountain, located halfway between the Wyoming towns of Cody and Powell, was one of ten camps run by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), the government agency responsible for administration of the incarceration program. At many camps, it required Japanese Americans to work at building their own prison barracks. By the start of 1943, Heart Mountain had reached its peak population of 10,767. The WRA soon after began distributing a leave clearance registration form among adults in all ten camps, hoping to encourage some Japanese Americans to resettle outside the West Coast and relieve overcrowding in camp. The registration was initially given only to Nisei who had volunteered for resettlement. However, as the need increased to draft replacement troops for U.S. forces in Europe and North Africa, WRA officials saw an opportunity to assess the loyalty of incarcerated Japanese Americans and expanded the so-called "loyalty questionnaire" to vet potential enlistees and troublemakers. The loyalty questionnaire was unpopular among prisoners in Heart Mountain and every other WRA camp, mostly because of its final two questions: Would the respondent volunteer for military service (Question 27); and would the person forswear allegiance to the Emperor of Japan (Question 28). Many young men were insulted to be asked to enlist on behalf of a country that had imprisoned them and forced the loss of their family businesses and homes. They also resented the second question, which seemed to assume that Japanese Americans had, at some point, been loyal to Japan rather than the United States. Others were simply confused, fearing that an affirmative answer to Question 27 would be equated with volunteering for dangerous combat duty, and that a "renunciation" of allegiance to Japan would be considered an admission of previous guilt and used to justify deportation or other punishment.〔 Inmates organized the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee based on initial resistance to the loyalty questionnaire. Frank Emi had refused to answer the questions, instead writing that "under the present circumstances" he was unable to complete the form. He posted fliers around camp advising others to do the same.〔Woo, Elaine. ("Frank S. Emi dies at 94; Japanese American fought effort to draft WWII internees." ),''Los Angeles Times,'' 9 December 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2014.〕 Kiyoshi Okamoto had already established himself as a prominent figure in Heart Mountain, having helped organize a "Congress of American Citizens" to protest the lack of information provided by the WRA and the military in their administration of the "registration" process. Okamoto continued to publicly protest the loyalty questionnaire and the general infringement of Nisei citizens' rights in camp, dubbing himself a "Fair Play Committee of One" in November 1943.〔(''Conscience and the Constitution'': "Timeline" ) (PBS, 2000). Retrieved 23 October 2014.〕 Emi and several others approached Okamoto later that year and began holding informal meetings to discuss their complaints against the WRA and possible courses of action. The meetings remained fairly small until early 1944, when Nisei men, demoted to 4-C class after Pearl Harbor, were added to the draft pool and began receiving induction notices in camp. The Fair Play Committee formally elected the seven founders (Okamoto, Emi, Sam Horino, Guntaro Kubota, Paul Nakadate, Min Tamesa, and Ben Wakaye) as its steering committee on January 26.〔 Its first public meeting was held in a mess hall on February 8, 1944 and sixty young men showed up to listen to Committee leaders' arguments against the forced conscription of citizens who had been stripped of their rights.〔 As the number of Heart Mountain draftees grew, so did interest in the Fair Play Committee, and a March 1 rally attracted over 400 attendees.〔 Public meetings continued. The Committee became a formal membership organization, with a $2 fee for joining and a requirement that all members be citizens loyal to the United States and willing to serve if their rights were restored.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|