Greeting: America and the Draft · Episode 5 of 12 · 22 min
The Good War's Fine Print: The WWII Draft's Forgotten Losers
World War II was a genuinely popular war, yet its draft crushed people most Americans never think about. The episode covers the first peacetime draft of 1940, how deferments worked and who navigated them, roughly 6,000 men imprisoned for draft offenses (most of them Jehovah's Witnesses), the Japanese American resisters of Heart Mountain, and a segregated call-up. It is not cynicism about the war, just its ledger.
Who's who
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who signed the Selective Training and Service Act in 1940
- Henry L. StimsonSecretary of War who drew the first blindfolded capsule in 1940
- Lewis B. Hershey+4 more episodesSelective Service director from 1941; architect of the local-board system
- Clarence A. DykstraFirst national director of Selective Service
- Harry S. Truman+14 more episodesPresident who pardoned the Heart Mountain resisters in 1947
- James OmuraJournalist tried with Fair Play Committee leaders and acquitted
Where it happens
- Heart Mountain, Wyoming+1 more episodeCamp where the Fair Play Committee organized draft resistance
- Cheyenne, Wyoming+2 more episodesFederal court where 63 resisters were convicted in 1944
Timeline
- September 1940Roosevelt signs the first peacetime conscription law
- October 1940First draft lottery drawn at the War Department
- August 1941Service extension passes the House by a single vote, 203 to 202
- January 1944Draft reinstated for Nisei, including men held in camps
- June 194463 Heart Mountain resisters convicted in the first mass draft-resistance trial
- December 1947Truman pardons the resisters in a broader postwar amnesty
Still debated
The roughly 6,000 imprisoned and the Jehovah's Witness share are standard but approximate figures, as are Heart Mountain and all-camp resister totals. The 1947 pardon was a legal clearing, not a finding that the resistance was justified, and the class skew in deferments is hard to quantify precisely.
← PreviousLittle Groups of Neighbors: The WWI Draft Board and the Men It JailedNext →Work of National Importance: The Pacifist Smokejumpers of WWII
Connected episodes in other series
Forced Out: Japanese American Incarceration and the War's Mirror ImageLiberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 7Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt
Standard Oil's Secret Cartel With Nazi GermanyBackyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 3Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman
The Deal: Wagner, Flint, and Taft-HartleyThe Long Argument: Capital vs. Labor · Episode 7Also features Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman
How Foresters Built the Allied War MachineGround Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 6Also features Harry S. Truman