cover image Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II

Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II

Eric L. Muller. University of Chicago Press, $30 (250pp) ISBN 978-0-226-54822-7

After imprisoning them in 1942, the U.S. government began drafting Japanese-Americans for military service two years later. In Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II, University of North Carolina law professor Eric L. Muller details a group of men caught in a horrific catch-22: ostracized by the Japanese-American community for not complying with Uncle Sam's call, yet without rights as citizens. The book is backed by years of research and personal interviews, and fills in an important chapter of United States history. (Oct.)