Confrontation at the Locks: A Protest of Japanese Removal and Incarceration during World War II

Abstract

CHARLES DAVIS _AND JEFFREY KQVAC Confrontation at the Locks A ProtestofJapaneseRemoval and Incarceration during WorldWar II IT ISAMEASURE OF THE IDEALISM oftheWorldWarII conscientious objectors (COs) that J. Henry Dasenbrock, the first assignee to Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp 21 at Cascade Locks, Oregon, reported early.1 Dasenbrock had received a letter early in the fall of 1941 ordering him to report to the camp on December 5. The camp director was Rev. Mark Y. Schrock, he learned, a Church of the Brethren minister from Olympia, Washington, whom Dasenbrock had known while growing up in Idaho. Volunteering to help Schrock set up the new camp, Dasenbrock slept on the couch of Schrock's home inOlympia for amonth or so before heading toCascade Locks in lateNovember to prepare the camp for the first arriv als. Schrock had spent several months searching for a site for the firstCPS camp in the Pacific Northwest and had settled onWyeth, about sixmiles east of Cascade Locks, because of the excellent facilities of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp there. Itwas relatively easy to get there by rail and bus, and therewas thewealth of Forest Service work projects to keep COs busy in the nearby Mt. Hood National Forest. Schrock also may have been impressed with the beauty of the landscape along Gorton Creek, where the camp was sandwiched between the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River. The camp population, which eventually reached two hundred men, was diverse? in their religious beliefs, their educational backgrounds, and their financial and family circumstances. The one thing themen had in common OHQ vol. 107, no. 4 ? 2006 Oregon Historical Society World War II conscientious objectors livedbeside theriverin the midst of the forest coveredbasalt cliffs of theColumbia RiverGorge at this Civilian Public Service camp near Cascade Locks, Oregon. was that they refused to serve in themilitary either as combatants or non combatants. All of them had been subjected to conscription, and theywere sensitive to the power of the state.Many also shared a strong commitment to social justice. For some, that commitment came from their religious background; for others, ithad a more philosophical and political origin. Because of their common cause, taking principled actions against what the men considered to be social injustice became an essential part of the CPS experience formany COs. In the summer of 1942, themen of CPS Camp 21mounted one of the few sustained protests against the federal government's incarceration of Japanese citizens and aliens during World War II.2Their protest, sparked by an order to remove George Kiyoshi Yamada, a CO at Camp 21, to an in ternment camp illuminates the history of the conscientious objector system during World War II and highlights a little-known example of resistance to the government's racist relocation policy. This account of the resistance to Davis and Kovac, Confrontation at theLocks 487 Yamada's removal isbased on amanuscript by the late Charles Davis, who was a CO at Camp 21 and a participant in the protest. CIVILIAN PUBLIC SERVICE had itsorigininavisittoPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 10,1940, by seven representatives of theChurch of theBrethren, theReligious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Mennonite Church ? a group also known as the historic peace churches.3 Even though thewar inEurope was in itsearly stages, theUnited Stateswas moving rapidly into prewar preparation, and the sevenmen wanted to express their concern that, should war come, adequate provisions be made for conscience. Their proposal ? modeled on the successful system inGreat Britain? called for alternative civilian service and complete exemption for absolutists, those men who were unwilling to cooperate with any system of conscription.4 Although thepresident was affable and thedelegationleft hisoffice feeling that themeeting was a success, a sustained lobbying effortby the churches was required to persuade Congress to include the essence of their proposal into the pending bill. Ultimately, the Selective Service and Training Act of 1940 provided for those persons who, "by reasons of religious training and belief, are conscientiously opposed to participation inwar in any form" to be placed either in noncombatant roles in themilitary or assigned to do work of national importance under civilian control.5 The act provided no exemption for absolutists and no provision for nonreligious objectors...