Choosing Not to Fight ‘Good War’

It was “the good war,” a choice between freedom and fascism. So how could thousands of Americans refuse to fight in World War II?

The documentary “The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It” (KCET, 10 p.m.), by filmmakers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Tejada-Flores, tells the story of those conscientious objectors. The unpopular battle fought by these pacifists has all the more resonance in today’s wartime climate.

World War II united the nation like never before, but for conscientious objectors, ethical or religious beliefs complicated a seemingly clear issue. As objector Carlos Cortez put it, “I was asked, ‘What’s a matter, you like Hitler?’ I says, ‘Look, if you guaranteed me a shot at Hitler, you wouldn’t have to draft me. But to shoot at another draftee, one who I don’t even know, one that I have nothing against, no, the heck with that.’”

Objectors often were scorned by their families as well as the nation. Many chose prison instead of the camps where they were sent to perform mostly menial tasks.

Yet the objectors helped America in their own ways, the filmmakers argue.

As volunteers at mental hospitals, for example, they exposed horrid conditions.

Some risked their lives as guinea pigs in vital experiments. After the war, objectors led relief efforts overseas, and at home they helped spark the civil rights movement.

This one-hour presentation of the San Francisco-based Independent Television Service sheds light on an obscure historical footnote, but it might have been even more illuminating if it weren’t so one-sided. OK, so the objectors weren’t deviants warped by a “mother fixation,” as a propaganda film suggested at the time, but how about a thoughtful counterpoint from someone who doesn’t see them as quite so heroic, either?