A hard memory in American history lives on at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center in Powell, Wyoming.
Watch Heart Mountain story here:
The museum and memorial opened a new exhibit honoring more than 80 draft resisters, who refused to fight in World War II because they and their families were among the 120,000 people of Japanese descent held in internment camps across the U.S.
And at 100 years old, a man who lived in this camp, spoke about the history he and others made here.
Draft resisters and a group called the Fair Play Committee would meet in a mess hall.
An exhibit called “The Patriotism of Prostest: Draft Resistance in Confinement” just opened telling their story.
Those men of Japanese descent held by the United States at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center inlcuded then 18-year-old Takashi Hoshizaki.
“And then when they came up to the drafting us out of the camp, I said, this is really crazy,” Hoshizaki said.
Hoshizaki is the last of the draft resisters still alive.
These men formed a group known as the Fair Play Committee.
They were all held at Heart Mountain and would meet in the mess hall to discuss the issue.
“I decided not to answer the draft call at that time,” Hoshizaki said.
Related: Japanese internees remembered at Heart Mountain, Wyoming
Related: Parallel Barbed Wire: Heart Mountain Interpretive Center reveals new exhibit
Related: Repeated break-ins damage Heart Mountain historic hospital structures
The draft resisters lived in a camp here, and they resisted because the rights of Americans of Japanese descent were being violated.
So they would have been fighting for the United States while their relatives were incarcerated.
“Under the current circumstances, if I am in this camp with my family being treated this way, I can't answer the draft,” Cally Steussy said about what the men said.
Steussy is the Interpretive Center's director of interpretation and preservation.
She questions President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 that led to the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent at 10 camps in the United States.
“Of course it was legal,” Steussy said. “The law was written intentionally to allow this to happen. Was it constitutional is a larger question.”
Steussy calls what Hoshizaki and the other draft resisters did patriotic.
“Sometimes patriotism is also holding your country accountable,” Steussy said.
All 63 men went to trial in Cheyenne, where a judge found them guilty of violating the Selective Services Act and sentenced them to three years in federal prison.
Hoshizaki understood the historical significance at the time the newspaper photographer took this picture.
“So, I stuck my head up in between the people so that my face would be visible in the picture,” Hoshizaki said.
Hoshizaki spent three years in prison and was pardoned by President Harry S Truman. His family moved back to Los Angeles, and he did serve his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
“Our civil rights are back, and I felt that with a draft call that I would gladly serve,” Hoshizaki said.
Watch video extra of Takakshi Hoshizaki interview here:
Twenty more draft resisters received the same verdict later in Cheyenne.
The necessity for the draft came about when the Army could not get enough men to volunteer for an all-Japanese unit.
The 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team consisted of 18,000 Japanese American soldiers.
“The 442nd: incredibly courageous, incredibly brave, the most highly decorated unit for its size and length of service in American history,” Steussy said. “And so they've been held up and lionized for their service.”
A plaque at the interpretive center shows that 750 men from Heart Mountain served in the U.S. military, with 15 losing their lives.
Steussy says the draft resisters have earned their right to a special exhibit as they teach one example of what has kept America and the Constitution strong for 250 years.
“The United States was founded on the idea that you can push back,” Steussy said.
