Paul T. Minerich papers, 1944-1998.

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Paul T. Minerich papers, 1944-1998.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/433616165

The Paul T. Minerich papers document the court cases of draft resisters who were court-martialed in 1944 at Ft. McClellan, Alabama. The resisters were court-martialed for refusing to be trained for combat while their families were incarcerated in concentration camps. On 20 Mar. 1944, forty-three infantry trainees were ordered to march to a field house to hear an orientation by their training commander. The group began to march, but soon stopped and refused to continue. A soldier was ordered to take the names of those who had disobeyed orders, but they refused to identify themselves and were placed under arrest. Twenty-one of these men were eventually convicted and tried for violating the 64th Article of War (willfully disobeying a direct order by a superior commissioned officer). The resisters, also known as the DB Boys (Detention Barrack Boys), were sentenced to a dishonorable discharge, a forfeiture of pay, and confinement to hard labor for 5 to 30 years. In Nov. 1945, their sentences were reduced by a special clemency action and in 1946 they were put on parole and released. Immediately after their release Charles Edmund Zane (a lawyer and high school friend to resister Masao Kataoka) began to write briefs in defense of the injustice done to the DB boys. As early as 1946, Zane submitted applications to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records for a hearing to convince the board that the verdicts of the court martial be reversed. In May 1949, the men were informed that the hearing would not be granted. Despite the dismissal of the court, Zane continued his legal research by writing to different government agencies and requesting court records in hopes of an eventual court hearing. In the 1980s, over thirty years after the DB Boys trial, Paul T. Minerich (an attorney and son-in-law of resister, Tim Nomiyama) continued the DB Boys case. In Jan. 1981, the Army changed the sentences for 11 of the 21 resisters of dishonorable discharge to honorable discharge. The remaining ten did not wish to change their status. The eleven men then testified before the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records and, in Feb. 1982, the board ordered that they receive credit toward active service for the years that they were confined after their court martial. The Board also changed the record to show that they had been honorably discharged due to expiration of their enlistment rather than release from their confinement. What Zane started in the 1940s, Minerich resumed and finished in the 1980s, during an era of Japanese American redress and reparations. Zane papers: The Court-Martial Documents are arranged chronologically with the bulk of the documents being trial records for ten of the resisters. The trial records are arranged alphabetically by the resisters' last names. Correspondences are divided into three folder titles: Zane with the DB Boys, Zane with the Government and various institutions, and the Government with the DB Boys. Each folder is arranged chronologically. Correspondence with no dates are located at the end of the folder. Some of the papers are duplicate copies and rough drafts of letters that were handwritten and then typewritten. In the Correspondences sub-series there is also a compiled copy of letters Zane sent to government agencies including a letter to President Harry S. Truman. The Notes sub-series contains court notes and research notes including a few newspaper clippings. Minerich papers: The Court-Martial Documents contain the transcript of the 1982 hearing and settlement records from the United States Army Finance and Accounting Center. Correspondences are divided into four folder titles: Minerich with the DB Boys, Minerich with the Government and various institutions, the Government with the DB Boys, and personal statements from the DB Boys. Each folder is arranged chronologically. Included in the sub-series are written statements by the resisters chronicling their life history as well as letters between Paul Minerich and Aiko Herzig, John Tateishi, Sen. Daniel Inouye, Sen. Spark Matsunaga, author Frank Chuman, producer Loni Ding, and the National Museum of American History. The Audio-Visual Materials sub-series contains video interviews of the DB Boys and their wives that share their experiences before, during, and after the war. The materials include the original set of VHS copies, 1 set of DV cam copies, and two sets of DVD access copies. Persons represented include: Shigeo Hamai, Kenjiro Hayakawa, Frank F. Hirouchi, Yoshikuzu Ishiyama, Henry Itano, Masao Kataoka, Mitsuru Mitsuhiro, Henry Morinaka, Masuo Morita, Harold Murata, Richard Tatsuo Nakamura, Tim T. Nomiyama, Hakubun (Hugh) Nozawa, Ben B. Ogawa, Masami J. Okamoto, Masao Oyama, Sadayuki Sakuma, Masao Sumida, Fred Fumio Sumoge, Katsumi Taniguchi, and Harold C. Tsunehara.

1.5 linear ft.

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7522503

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Related Entities

There are 33 Entities related to this resource.

Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6776605 (person)

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Inouye, Daniel K., 1924-2012

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zx2b89 (person)

Daniel K. Inouye (b. September 7, 1924 – d. December 17, 2012) was a United States Senator from Hawaii from 1963 to 2012. He was a member of the Democratic Party and served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate from 2010 until his death. He also served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. During World War II, Inouye served as part of the 442nd Infantry Regiment and lost his right arm to a grenade wound. He received several military decorations, including ...

Itano, Henry M., 1916-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65j54f8 (person)

National Museum of American History (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69d0m97 (corporateBody)

The history of the National Museum of American History's (NMAH) collections dates from the very beginning of the Institution, when Secretary Joseph Henry began to amass a collection of scientific apparatus for historical and demonstration purposes. In 1849 the Institution made a major purchase of fine arts prints, which became the core of the graphic arts collections. In 1858, the United States Patent Office transferred to the Smithsonian the national collections, includin...

DB Boys (Group)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6132zxm (corporateBody)

Morita, Masuo, 1917-1998

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md6nb5 (person)

Yoshinaga-Herzig, Aiko

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hf5j48 (person)

Matsunaga, Spark M. (Spark Masayuki), 1916-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w123bq (person)

Spark Masayuki Matsunaga (October 8, 1916 – April 15, 1990) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the House of Representatives from Hawaii's at-large and 1st congressional districts from 1963 to 1977 and as United States Senator for Hawaii from 1977 until his death in 1990. Born Masayuki Matsunaga in Kukuila on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, he graduated from Kauai High School before attending the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, participating in the Reser...

Hirouchi, Frank F., 1918-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p9218w (person)

Oyama, Masao.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w45k23 (person)

Okamoto, Masami J., 1917-2001

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6618nbd (person)

Murata, Harold S., 1919-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mx0551 (person)

Kataoka, Masao, 1917-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w748hv (person)

Morinaka, Henry

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x42kzx (person)

Chuman, Frank F., 1917-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60p8nff (person)

Chuman, a Nisei, was born in CA in 1917; graduated from UCLA (1938) and the Univ. of Maryland Law School (1945); administrator, Manzanar Camp hospital, 1942-43; legal counsel for the National Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), 1953-60; national president, JACL, 1960-62; became a liaison to the Japanese American Research Project (JARP) in 1962; published a book titled, The bamboo people : the law and Japanese Americans (c. 1976). From the description of Papers, ca. 1948- (Unive...

Tsunehara, Harold C., 1916-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s25r5w (person)

Ishiyama, Yoshikazu

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6190vtb (person)

Ding, Loni

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j46gbq (person)

Hayakawa, Kenjiro, 1919-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qk562g (person)

Sakuma, Sadayuki, 1920-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c89z8k (person)

Tateishi, John, 1939-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ps5jmj (person)

Ogawa, Ben B., 1916-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kb0xhf (person)

Nozawa, Hakubun, 1918-2002

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zt0jf7 (person)

Hamai, Shigeo, 1913-2004

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p34m01 (person)

Zane, Charles E., 1922-2003

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64c0psf (person)

Minerich, Paul T.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60w62g5 (person)

Attorney and son-in-law of resister Tim Nomiyama. From the description of Paul T. Minerich papers, 1944-1998. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 433616165 Biography / Administrative History The Paul T. Minerich papers document the court cases of draft resisters who were court-martialed in 1944 in Ft. McClellan, Alabama. The resisters were court-martialed for refusing to be trained for combat while their families were incarcer...

Taniguchi, Katsumi, 1919-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62w04kp (person)

Nakamura, Richard Tatsuo

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rv8bmh (person)

Sumoge, Fred F. (Fred Fumio), 1919-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61s4d7p (person)

Mitsuhiro, Mitsuru R., 1920-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61s4cj9 (person)

U.S. Army Finance and Accounting Center

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cs1dvq (corporateBody)

Nomiyama, Tim T., 1916-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gb9s3w (person)

Sumida, Masao, 1918-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f55b5v (person)