They refused to fight for a country that refused their rights.
June 18, 1944: Sixty-three Japanese American men were convicted in the largest draft resistance trial of World War II, in Wyoming
They weren’t draft dodgers.
In fact, many of them were willing to fight — but not without their freedom and justice. These young men were incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, one of ten War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps built to detain Japanese Americans. Their crime? They refused to comply with a draft order issued while they were behind barbed wire.
They were U.S. citizens. They were American-born. But their families had been stripped of homes, jobs, property, and dignity.
Now, the government wanted them to serve in the military — for freedom they themselves had been denied.
The government called them criminals. In reality, they were demanding justice.
Led in part by the Fair Play Committee, a group organized within the camp, the resisters argued it was unconstitutional to force people to fight while they and their families remained incarcerated. They said: restore our civil rights first, and we will serve.
The military and courts didn’t want to hear it.
On June 18, 1944, 63 men were convicted of violating the Selective Service Act in a mass trial held in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Each was sentenced to federal prison.
They weren’t alone. Hundreds of other Japanese Americans resisted in smaller numbers at different camps, but the Heart Mountain 63 were the most visible — and the most vilified.
They were labeled as traitors. Even some in their own community turned against them.
Yet decades later, their actions would be seen for what they were: a courageous stand for civil rights in the face of injustice.
Many of the men would later be pardoned. Some would speak out. Others stayed silent. But all of them, knowingly or not, helped reshape how we understand patriotism, protest, and the power of saying “no.”
