Lt. Ehren Watada: Two Years Later
November 8, 2008
Hero, villain or none of the above?
That Watada’s a disgrace! No, Watada’s courageous! Maybe he’s just misguided.
As these typical remarks show, Lt. Ehren Watada’s two-year-long protest of the war has struck a nerve in the community, mirroring the Japanese American divisions over loyalty and military service during World War II.
With the Army’s prosecution of Watada for his failure to deploy to Iraq weakened by a recent federal district court ruling, and a sympathetic “regime change” now accomplished in Washington, D.C., it might be valuable to look at this issue again.
In June 2006, Watada, then a 28-year-old Japanese American from Hawai‘i, became the first American officer to refuse deployment, shoving him into the national spotlight and slating him for a court martial and possibly seven years in federal prison. The army charged him with contempt towards President Bush, conduct unbecoming an officer and refusal to deploy to Iraq.
Watada contended that the war is illegal and that he would be a party to war crimes if he served in Iraq. His first court-martial ended in a mistrial in February 2007, and a federal judge ruled last month that Watada cannot face a second court martial on three of five counts.
As one who helped organize the 2000 and 2002 National Japanese American Citizens League effort to recognize the protest of World War II Nisei draft resisters, Watada’s case is strikingly familiar.
During World War II, in a blatant display of racism, the U.S. government first labeled Japanese Americans as disloyal. Then it locked them up in internment camps. Later, it even had the temerity to ask those people to swear loyalty to the government and fight for it in the armed forces.
To prove their loyalty, many Japanese men volunteered to fight against fascism, and many more were drafted. Thousands of Nisei soldiers like my late father served gallantly in the highly decorated 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service.
Over 300 other Nisei men, led by the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee, refused to be drafted. They demanded that their families be released from camp before they would join the army; 282 were convicted of draft resistance and locked up in federal prison.
An even larger group of 12,000 Japanese Americans dissented on the so-called loyalty oath. They answered “No” or refused to respond to that insulting questionnaire. In 1943, they became known as the disloyal “No-No Boys” and the Tule Lake Segregation Center became their home for the duration.
The government actively fanned up the divisions created between those it labeled loyal and disloyal. Many Japanese Americans, including the JACL, were swept into the infighting, severely weakening any united community efforts for justice. The hard feelings and ostracism still haunt the Nisei resisters, the No-No Boys and their families today.
It’s no surprise that the same issues of loyalty and patriotism flared up so heatedly about Watada. It scraped the scab off an old wound that had never completely healed.
One of the lessons from the government-created divisions over the World War II “loyalty oath” and the recent reconciliation efforts with the Nisei draft resisters is that there is no single or correct path to loyalty.
When I’ve talked to Nisei veterans and resisters, few would say they were heroes. Many have told me they were just doing what they believed was right for their families, the Japanese American community and the country. We should respect them for their different choices — agree or disagree.
Lt. Watada: hero, villain or none of the above? From what I’ve learned about this young man, he’s a principled individual with sincere beliefs and deserves our respect — agree or disagree. To me, he’s of the same tradition as the Nisei draft resisters and veterans — stuck in a no-win situation where he had to make a tough personal choice of conscience. I guess my answer is none of the above, and I hope the U.S. Army comes to the same conclusion.
Andy Noguchi is the civil rights co-chairman of the Japanese American Citizens League, Florin Chapter, in Sacramento, Calif., and of the Northern California—Western Nevada—Pacific JACL District Council.
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6 Responses to “Lt. Ehren Watada: Two Years Later”
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Copy previously published in various other publications.
Lt. Ehren Watada and Sec. of Defense Robert M. Gates remarks to graduating officers(additional comments from General Peter Pace)
First Lt. Ehren Watada has become the Army’s first commissioned officer to publicly refuse orders to fight in Iraq on grounds that the war is illegal. Watada claims that he ceased to believe in the legality and morality of the [Iraq]war. He is currently involved in his 2 nd trial, the 1st was declared a mistrial.
“I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.” - U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada
What follows is excerpted from Sec. of Defense Robert M. Gates address to the graduating Air Force Academy Class,2007: Remarks as Delivered at Colorado Springs, Colorado, Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Emphasis by the editor/contributor. “There is only one way to conduct yourself in this world – only one way to remain always above reproach. For a real leader, the elements of personal virtue – self-reliance, self-control, honor, truthfulness, morality – are absolute. They are absolute even when doing what is right may bring embarrassment or bad publicity to your unit or the service or to you. Even when doing what is right may require sacrificing personal allegiances and friendships for professional duty and ethics – for personal honor.
Those are the moments that will truly test the leader within you – test whether you will take the hard path or the easy path, the wrong path or the right path. Always remember, as a wise man once said, “following the path of least resistance is what makes men and rivers crooked.” The willingness always to take the right path, even if it is the hard path, is called character.
In every aspect of your life, whether personal or professional, you must always maintain the courage of your convictions – your personal integrity. President John Adams wrote to one of his sons: ” A young man should weigh well his plans. Integrity should be preserved in all events, as essential to his happiness, through every stage of his existence. His first maxim should be to place his honor out of reach of all men.”
And, I would add, don’t kid yourself. More often than not, doing this involves traveling a difficult and lonely road.” [end]
At a pre-trial press conference Watada remarked that he believed “it his duty to refuse to fight in the [Iraq] war”, and that he was “prepared to face prison time for his beliefs.”
At a National Press Club luncheon February 17, 2006, just a year before Watada’s court-martial, Gen. Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked, “Should people in the US military disobey orders they believe are illegal?” Pace’s response: “It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral.”
There is a tradition in the Japanese American community to act on personal belief from volunteer 442/Nisei Linguist (while their family and friends were in camps), the NoNo Boys (the family and friends that refused to sign loyaty oaths while in relocation camps) and the Vietnam War Resisters. [But then again they’re just words, and actions speak louder than catch phases such as…”Mission Accomplished.”]
Contributed by T. Kyoshi Nagano, Tokyo Villa 222 S. Central Ave #127, Los Angeles, CA 90012-4233 (213) 621-7665 MrDowntownLA@yahoo.com(file:RobertGates6.30.07)
I just retired after 25 years in the Army. As an enlisted man I will throw my 2 cents in. GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!! The man should have been retried and found guilty…but since the courts have decided to not allow that then the answer is simple. He is still in the Army (Altho I cannot fathom the reason why!) so just deploy his ass again! Let him refuse to miss movement again and THEN court martial his ass!
He joined AFTER 9-11…he KNEW that deployment was likely…then he refused to go! Why is he not in a cell instead of making as much money as a LT that I did as a SSG?!?
hahaha. man im sorry but i can’t help but put MY two cents in as well.
first off, i don’t know what the heck was going through Lt. Watada’s head when he decided to not show for movement. i am not Lt. Watada, i don’t know what made him decide to do that.
however! I DO KNOW (being an enlisted man myself) that if you miss movement, dire consequences are in store for you.
it took something for that Lt. to say no to Iraq. i don’t know if he was out of his mind or what but i will say this…good for him. GOOD FOR HIM.
maybe not exactly good for him per se but good for him for growing a pair and making a stand on what he believes.
btw this is just my two cents and i speak for no one else but myself but being in the military, the army especially…you are beaten down. you are subjected to continuous conditioning and conformity and it takes quite a bit for one to go against the grain. a LOT of people will ostracize you for attempting to rock the boat. tht is just the way the whole military system is designed. the pressure to obey and conform is so tremendous that the majority of those who cannot cut it and be a “good soldier” are weeded out quick.
what can i say, it took a bit of intestinal fortitude as we in the serive like to say for Lt. Watada to do what he did and i for one say good for him for sticking up his beliefs.
Hero, villain, or whatever in between…i really can’t say.
I do believe he is trying to live up to his 7 army values however, and that to me is the mark of a true soldier.
To Lt. Watada: BRAVO! To those who wage the war: FULL METAL JACKET!
1 word, COWARD. He should be shot!
Mmm.
Does “shooting” the man resolve this issue?
Was/is the “:war in Iraq” “legal”?
Was/is it “moral”?
Did it resolve anything, other than murder a million and displace another four?
Is “war” :”logical”?
Does being a grunt, of ANY stripe, rationalize killing and destruction?
There have been Ysnkee generals like Gavin and Eisenhower, and, also, like MacArthur and Patton.
There ARE differences, but, in the end, they ALL kill and maim and destroy, in whatever “name” and “cause” and under whatever “flag” or symbol.
The day this nation begins to shift its resources and “man”power to constructivity and creativity rather than murder and mayhem, that will be the day I would cheerfully “volunteer,” again, for “service” to the commonweal.
Of course, that would be the day Hell freezes over.