Our speaker this week will be Ronald Bush, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge. He will tell us about the "Nisei Paradox".
Despite being at war, the armed services first refused to enlist volunteers from the ranks of those who had been relocated. Later, a decision was made to allow volunteer enlistment of Japanese-American men and then later still a decision was made to draft all eligible young men interned in concentration camps.
A greater percentage of young men from Idaho’s concentration camp at Minidoka voluntarily enlisted than from any other of the concentration camps. But some refused induction asking why they should be forced to fight for a country that deprived them of the very freedoms they were being asked to defend. Dozens of young men were prosecuted as draft resisters in Idaho Federal court.