Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment believing the war was illegal, faces a difficult task. The court, in Watada's first trial, already refused to consider any arguments relating to the war's legality or the Nuremberg Principles.
Though it ended in a mistrial Feb. 7, observers believe the Army wants to send a strong message by refiling identical charges: refusal to deploy and conduct unbecoming to an officer - punishable by at least four years in prison.
"This is an honorable and admirable young man," said Ying Lee Kelly, a member of the Watada Support Committee in the Bay Area, which held a rally Thursday in San Francisco. "We were so grateful . . . and we felt he should not be alone in facing the military and public opinion."
A matter of conscience
Besides the usual list of anti-war celebrities and politicians in Watada's corner, what impresses me most are the members of the Heart Mountain draft resisters. They know all about taking an unpopular stand on principle.
These are people like Mits Koshiyama in San Jose, Frank Emi and Yoshi Kuromiya in Los Angeles, and others. They know the personal cost can still resonate and sting, even after 60 years.
Heart Mountain, Wyo., is where so many Japanese-Americans from Santa Clara County were interned during World War II. A group called the Fair Play Committee rose up in reaction to a move to draft young men from the camps to fight in the segregated - and storied - Army unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Branded as draft resisters, and condemned by the leading community organization - the Japanese American Citizens League - the committee persevered through their trial on principle. They would gladly fight if their country first treated them equally as citizens - restored their civil liberties, released their families from internment camps. In the largest mass trial in U.S. history, 63 were convicted of draft evasion, and they spent nearly two years in jail before the convictions were overturned on appeal. Koshiyama, who worked for years as the gardener at Willow Glen High School, was one. Choosing the consequences Writer Frank Chin sent me a DVD recording of a phone meeting between Watada and Emi, Kuromiya and Paul Tsuneishi, a World War II veteran. Koshiyama, 83, was going to take part until health issues intervened. The elders offered their analyses and support. Kuromiya told the young officer that he might very well go to prison, but it could be the beginning of something new. He has the character for leadership and a role to play. Emi observed how they knew he had been in a difficult position. That he didn't have a choice. Watada, however, looked at it differently. "I thought . . . I didn't have a choice," Watada said. "That I'd joined the military and I had only one duty, and that was to obey what I was told, regardless of how I felt inside." It depressed him for a long time. Then he realized something. "When I told myself I do have a choice, a choice to do what was morally right, what I can live with for the rest of my life, and even though it comes with consequences, I have that choice. When I realized that, when I chose what was right, I was free again." Perhaps Emi was mulling over what happened in that courtroom in Cheyenne, Wyo., 63 years ago. "Exactly," he replied, with the conviction of a man looking back on the whole of his 90 years. "I don't think you'll ever regret that choice." That, in the end, is what we all want to be able to say. Contact L.A. Chung at lchung@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5280
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