About the film

DVD coverCONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION is a one-hour film which reveals the long-untold story of the organized draft resistance at the American concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, and the suppression of that resistance by Japanese American leaders.

Under the banner of the Fair Play Committee, 85 young men declared they were ready to fight for their country, but not until the government restored their rights as citizens and released their families from camp. Through their eyes audiences see into the heart of the Japanese American conscience and a debate that is still alive today.

ITVS logoConscience and the Constitution
was written, produced, and directed by Frank Abe in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS), with funding provided by the Corporation for Public PBS logoBroadcasting and the federal Civil Liberties Public Education Fund.  It debuted nationwide on PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, on November 30, 2000.

Order the DVD here.

The history and literature of Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration