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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... thought , " Three years , am I to spend three years here ? " The marshall spoke up , " Well , boys , this will be your home for some time to come . " The auto thief hand- cuffed on my left arm looked dour and said nothing . An eighteen ...
... thought she had gastric disturbances . Dr. Irwin replied , " Since when does gastric disturbance have a heartbeat ? " Eleanor was told to quit work in about a month ( women were han- dled very differently in those days ! ) . Eleanor ...
... thought he would have a heart attack . The guards heard the ruckus but , unfortunately , instead of re- moving Huddleston , they removed Bayard to his floor below and locked the gate . A. J. Muste , executive secretary of the Fellowship ...
... thought it over , I applied and was 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 ...
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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 |