{"product_id":"9780313353314","title":"Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II","description":"After the bombings of Pearl Harbor, the onset of rampant racism and distrust towards \"all things alien\" residing on American soil permeated the air. Persons of Japanese ancestry were the frequent victims of racist acts and culturally-biased governmental loyalty investigations and questionnaires. The prospect of reporting to active duty for a country that had imprisoned Japanese-American families and friends seemed trivial to resisters of injustice and racism. On the other hand, loyal Japanese-Americans saw it as an opportunity to display their solidarity to the United States. However, their efforts were met without reward as some members of the Japanese American Community were viewed as traitors or cowards. The \"conscientious\" resisters who questioned the actions of the government were met with a backlash of loyal Japanese-Americans. The history of the Japanese Americans in World War II does not record the stories of these resistors, nor does it mention the War Department Special Organization to which many of them were transferred or those who were tried and sentenced by military courts to long-term prison terms. The 200 conscientious military resisters felt betrayed by the government and viewed the decision to imprison Japanese Americans as an immoral acquiescence to west coast racism. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor set off perplexing issues of national identity that still reverberate today. The attack unleashed a pent up racism that had been directed at Japanese Americans for the previous 100 years which led to the exclusion and imprisonment of west coast Japanese Americans in 1942. The majority of Japanese Americans complied with these government actions including the drafting ofJapanese Americans into military service. Some 200 Japanese Americans drafted into the Army prior to Pearl Harbor, however, refused to serve in combat while their families languished in the internment camps. Though their actions were frowned up on at the time by many of their own families, and certainly the military, the draft resisters are now positively recognized in the Japanese American community. But their story remains largely untold in military circles, overshadowed by the heroic service of the stories of those who served in Japanese Americans who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. For the first time, the resisters' story is told in vivid detail. Castelnuovo documents their stories, from those who acted as individuals to those who were part of a collective opposition. She does not abandon the narrative, however, with the end of WWII. She follows many of the resisters into their post war years, assessing the ramifications of their actions on their lives as individuals and within the broader context of the Japanese-American community as well, noting that most were eventually re-embraced by their community, while forgotten to scholars and students of WWII.  ","brand":"Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083966497008,"sku":"9780313353314","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780313353314_p0.jpg?v=1763678321","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780313353314","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}