James Omura was attracted to the Fair Play Committee's draft protest because it was based on Constitutional grounds. He was the only journalist to write stories based on their news releases and to editorialize in their support. Subscriptions to his Rocky Shimpo newspaper inside the camp jumped, evidence of dissatisfaction with JACL policies.

His editorials are written in a veiled code that throws an anchor to the resistance movement without exposing himself to charges of wartime sedition. But a Wyoming grand jury indicted him anyway along with the Fair Play Committee leaders for conspiracy to counsel draft evasion, even though he never met or spoke with the resisters. This is the evidence that got him arrested.