A Few Small Candles: War Resisters of World War II Tell Their StoriesLarry Gara, Lenna Mae Gara Kent State University Press, 1999 - 207 pages Little is known about those who openly refused to enter military service in World War II because of their convictions against killing. While many of those men accepted alternative civilian service, more than 6,000 were incarcerated with sentences ranging from a few months to five years. Some were tried, convicted, and reimprisoned for essentially the same offense--resisting induction into the armed forces--after their initial release. In A Few Small Candles, ten men tell why they resisted, what happened to them, and how they feel about that experience today. Their stories detail the resisters' struggles against racial segregation in prison, as well as how they instigated work and hunger strikes to demonstrate against other prison injustices. Each of the ten has remained active in various causes relating to peace and social justice. This is a unique collection of memoirs that illuminated the American homefront during World War II and provides an important source for those interested in the American peace movement. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 34
... accepted alternative civilian service , more than 6,000 were incarcerated , with sentences ranging from a few months to five years . Some were tried , convicted , and reimprisoned for essentially the same offense - resisting induction ...
... accept military service but who were willing to do civilian work of " national importance . " Objectors choosing such service , if they were granted that privilege by their draft boards , were sent to Civilian Public Service ( CPS ) ...
... accept conscription and walked out of camp . And some men openly refused to register . About a third of those imprisoned as objectors were Jehovah's Witnesses , who claimed and were denied ministerial exemption . This book relates the ...
... accept CPS , having been denied conscientious objector status by my draft board , which I learned later never granted CO status to anybody , I wanted to establish that I was a CO first for future treatment within the prison and parole ...
... accepted . We were given lodging at Pendle Hill , a Quaker study center near Philadelphia , while I was in training for China . In the meantime , the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities and the war came to its ...
Contents
1 | |
20 | |
My Resistance to World War II | 38 |
My War and My Peace | 53 |
My War on War | 78 |
War Resistance in World War II | 98 |
Reflections of a Religious War Objector Half a Century Later | 130 |
Prison and Butterfly Wings | 152 |
How the War Changed My Life | 174 |
My Story of World War II | 194 |
Selected Additional Readings | 205 |