Japanese American National Museum
100 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 830-5615
Email: collections@janm.org
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© 2008
Japanese American National Museum. All rights reserved.
Finding aid of the Paul T. Minerich Papers
Collection number: 2003.229.1
Japanese American National Museum
Los Angeles, California
- Processed by:
- Marlon Romero
- Date Completed:
- 2008
- Encoded by:
- Marlon Romero
© 2008 Japanese American National Museum. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Paul T. Minerich papers
Dates: 1944-1998
Languages: English
Collection number: 2003.229.1
Creator:
Minerich, Paul T.
Collection Size:
1.5 linear feet
Repository:
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles, California 90012
Abstract: The Paul T. Minerich Papers document the court cases of draft resisters who were court-martialed in 1944 in Ft. McClellan,
Alabama. The resisters, also known as DB Boys (Detention Barracks Boys), were court-martialed and sentenced to a dishonorable
discharge and forfeiture of pay. In 1981 their sentences were overturned. The papers comprise of court-martial documents,
correspondences, and notes that were collected by their lawyers, Charles Edmund Zane and Paul T. Minerich.
Physical location: Japanese American National Museum
100 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Access
Collection is open for research by appointment only.
Please contact the Japanese American National Museum Collections Management and Access Unit by email (collections@janm.org)
or telephone (213-830-5615).
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections
Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Paul T. Minerich papers. 2003.229.1, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
Project Information
This finding aid was created as part of a project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
The project started in 2007. Project Director was Cris Paschild. Project Archivists were Yoko Shimojo and Marlon Romero.
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 incarcerated
in concentration camps. On March 20, 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 November
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 January 1981, the Army changed the sentences for 11 of the 21 resisters 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 February 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.
Resisters (DB Boys):
Hamai, Shigeo
Hayakawa, Kenjiro
Hirouchi, Frank F.
Ishiyama, Yoshikuzu
Itano, Henry
Kataoka, Masao
Mitsuhiro, Mitsuru
Morinaka, Henry
Morita, Masuo
Murata, Harold
Nakamura, Richard Tatsuo
Nomiyama, Tim T.
Nozawa, Hakubun (Hugh)
Ogawa, Ben B.
Okamoto, Masami J.
Oyama, Masao
Sakuma, Sasayuki
Sumida, Masao
Sumoge, Fred Fumio
Taniguchi, Katsumi
Tsunehara, Harold T.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Paul T. Minerich papers follow the journey to reverse the court martial verdicts against the Detention Barracks Boys started
by Charles Zane in 1945 and continued by Minerich. The collection is mostly comprised of 11 copies (one copy for each resister
represented by Minerich) of various legal documents. Documents include certificates of honorable discharge, notices of honorable
discharge, congratulatory letters from Minerich, petitions for a new trial under Article of War 53, copies of the Application
for Correction of Military Records, notices of case hearings, transcripts of the hearing in front of the Army Board for the
Correction of Military Records on December 1982, as well as signed affidavits. The collection also has correspondence between
Minerich and Aiko Herzig, John Tateishi, Cedrick Shimo, Senator Daniel Inouye, Senator Spark Matsunaga, author Frank Chuman,
and producer Loni Ding in an attempt to spread the word about the DB Boys’ case. Minerich even wrote to the National Museum
of American History’s Director of Exhibitions in hopes that the men’s story be told. The collection tells an important story
of resistance in the ranks of the military and also deals specifically with Kibei-Nisei, a group on whom literature is relatively
scarce.
Series 1 is court martial documents, correspondence, and notes compiled by Charles Zane between 1944 and 1954. These Zane
papers look much like the collections of Reverend Herbert Johnson, Clara Breed, and Afton Nance: informal letters, rough drafts,
type-written documents, which were all one man's grassroots effort to call attention to World War II's contradictions and
injustices. Part of Zane's collection are the original 1944 court martials as well as the 1944 guilty sentences, and numerous
letters Zane wrote to Congressmen in hopes of finding support for his cause in the late 1940s.
Series 2 is comprised of court martial documents, correspondence, and audiovisual materials create by Minerich as he continued
the case in the 1980s. In addition to the legal documents described above, the series includes video interviews of the DB
Boys and their wives that share their experiences before, during, and after the war.
Arrangement
The Zane series is comprised of three subseries: court martial documents, correspondence, and notes. 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. Correspondence has been separated by type of letter: letters sent
from Zane to the DB Boys, letters sent from Zane to the government and various institutions, letters sent from the government
to the DB Boys. Letters are arranged chronologically with undated letters at the end of each folder.
The Minerich series also contains three subseries: court martial documents, correspondence, and audiovisual materials. Again,
court martial documents are arranged chronologically. Correspondence has been separated by type of letter: letters sent from
Minerich to the DB Boys, letters sent from Minerich to the government and various institutions, letters from the government
to the DB Boys, and letters from the DB boys to Minrich. These letters are arranged chronologically with undated materials
at the end of each folder. Letters from the DB Boys to Minerich contain personal statements and are not dated.
Series 1: Charles E. Zane, 1944-1954
Subseries 1: Court Martial Documents
Subseries 2: Correspondence
Subseries 3: Notes
Series 2: Paul T. Minerich, 1980-1998
Subseries 1: Court Martial Documents
Subseries 2: Correspondence
Subseries 3: Audiovisual Materials
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Hamai, Shigeo
Hayakawa, Kenjiro
Hirouchi, Frank F.
Ishiyama, Yoshikuzu
Itano, Henry
Kataoka, Masao
Mitsuhiro, Mitsuru
Morinaka, Henry
Morita, Masuo
Murata, Harold
Nakamura, Richard Tatsuo
Nomiyama, Tim T.
Nozawa, Hakubun
Ogawa, Ben B.
Okamoto, Masami J.
Oyama, Masao
Sakuma, Sasayuki
Sumida, Masao
Sumoge, Fred Fumio
Taniguchi, Katsumi
Tsunehara, Harold T.
Minerich, Paul T.
Zane, Charles E.
United States. Army
DB Boys (Group)
Japanese Americans
World War, 1939-1945
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation. 1942-1945.
Japanese American soldiers
Box 1
Series 1
Charles E. Zane
1944-1954
Physical Description: 1 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
The Zane papers contain three sub-series: Court-Martial Documents, Correspondences, and Notes.
Box 1
Subseries 1.1
Court-Martial Documents
1944-1954
Physical Description: 14 folders
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
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.
Application for Correction of Military Records
Congressional Record of the 82nd Congress
Box 2
Subseries 1.2
Correspondences
1944-1952
Physical Description: 5 folders
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
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.
Government and various institutions
Box 2
Subseries 1.3
Notes
Physical Description: 1 folder
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
The Notes sub-series contains court notes and research notes including a few newspaper clippings.
Box 3
Series 2
Paul T. Minerich
1980-1998
Physical Description: 0.5 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
The Minerich papers contain three sub-series: Court-Martial Documents, Correspondences, and Audio-Visual Materials.
Box 3
Subseries 2.1
Court-Martial Documents
1980-1984
Physical Description: 5 folders
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
The Court-Martial Documents contain the transcript of the 1982 hearing and settlement records from the United States Army
Finance and Accounting Center.
Secretarial Review of Punitive Discharge
Honorable Discharge Documents
Transcript of Trial Hearing
USAFAC settlement records
Request for Military Records
Box 3
Subseries 2.2
Correspondences
1980-1998
Physical Description: 4 folders
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
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.
Government and various institutions
Personal statements from DB Boys
Box 3
Subseries 2.3
Audio-Visual Materials
1984
Physical Description: 1 folder
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
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.
