ABSTRACT
In July of 1946, the Nisei 1 soldiers of the racially segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team returned from three years of grueling service in Europe to a White House welcome from President Harry S. Truman. “You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice, and you won,” 2 the President told the troops and the nation. For decades after the war, the story of these soldiers’ willingness to fight and die for their country while the federal War Relocation Authority (WRA) confined their parents and siblings in desolate camps on account of race dominated the understanding of Japanese American military service and Japanese American loyalty, not just in their community but in the broader public mind. Only in recent years has word seeped out about a different, smaller group of young Nisei men who chose to resist the draft from inside the camps.
