Resisting the draft: A little known story of the Minidoka prisoners

Idaho Matters

A photo from the stage play, "The Nisei Paradox." ( Idaho Public Television)

We’ve heard many stories of what happened after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, when more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to what were known then as relocation centers, including the Minidoka camp in eastern Idaho.

However, one story you may not have heard is how many of the men sent to Minidoka were later drafted to serve in World War II and how many of them resisted the draft, refusing to fight for the country that had put them and their families behind barbed wire.

That’s the story behind a stage play traveling the state, written and performed by Idaho lawyers 80 years after the anniversary of those cases going to trial. It’s also being told in a new documentary on Idaho Public Television.

Bill Manny, executive producer with Idaho Public Television; Jeff Thomson the writer, director and actor of the Nisei Paradox; and Robyn Achilles, executive director of the Friends of Minidoka, join Idaho Matters to talk more.