Of the 35 million men who registered for the draft in the 1940s, 12,000 were war resisters, and more than half of those served prison terms—instead of their country—during the “Good War.” Many had connections to this area, and the few who are alive today harbor no regrets.
Growing up in this country, Toshiyuki Fukushima was convinced that a Japanese-American boy was expected to thrive at either judo or fencing. But, from the get-go, Fukushima didn’t enjoy hand-to-hand combat. Bigger and taller than most kids his age, he quit after the first year. Years later, his experience with Quakers reaffirmed his pacifism.
This was prior to World War II, when the Japanese weren’t considered peace-loving types. Soon enough, they’d be the outright aggressors. Fukushima was drafted before the war. Then, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the installation of Japanese-American internment camps, he was suddenly classified 4C—undesirable. “We didn’t ask for it or petition for it,” says Fukushima.
Now 89 and living in Swarthmore, Fukushima recalls only a few other Japanese-Americans during his time in Civilian Public Service, an alternative to combat during the war. He remembers the public’s abrupt and drastic change of heart toward Japanese-Americans, the dire circumstances surrounding it, and the questionnaire issued to solicit help from Fukushima and others in his predicament. Two of its questions have stayed with him all these years. One: Will you serve in the military of the United States? The other: Do you forswear allegiance to the emperor of Japan?
