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. |
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... cell window . He waved , but of course no communication was allowed . I learned later how prisoners scooped the water out of their toilets and conversed from cell to cell and floor to floor that way . As time began to pass , I felt ...
... cell and put on your shoes ! " Stanley ( later to be known as " the Barefoot Boy " ) , did not move , and we held our breath . Part of Stanley's pacifist philosophy ob- jected to killing animals , so he was a vegetarian and would not ...
... cell block . Stanley , on arrival at Ashland , took off his shoes and socks and became the " Barefoot Boy " again . I should say that Ashland had a much - improved atmosphere over Chillicothe , which had a large population of youthful ...
... cell . At that time all federal prisons were racially segregated , though at Ashland , Protestant and Quaker Sunday morning worship groups were integrated . We pressed the Catholic priest , a Kentuckian , to in- tegrate his service ...
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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 |