[1] Otsuka was classified by the draft board as a conscientious objector subject to "noncombatant service in the armed forces", but he was unwilling to participate in the armed forces in any capacity and argued, unsuccessfully, that he should have been classified as a conscientious objector subject to "civilian work of national importance."
Unable to change his classification, and unwilling to serve in the armed forces, he surrendered to the New York District Attorney and pleaded guilty to a violation of the draft law and sentenced to three years in prison.
[a] Otsuka testified: [I]n an extreme emergency such as war does bring, I feel the obligation to assist in any way possible in a civilian program under civilian direction that would help to alleviate human suffering and to promote greater human happiness, I was willing to participate in a civilian program of rehabilitation assisting in wartorn ravaged areas or in a medical research program, but that was never allowed by my draft board.… As a general rule I obey the law.
Two months after his release, on August 5, 1950 (one day before the fifth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima), he was arrested with two other protesters for passing out leaflets at the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
I came today to burn, at that hour, 70% of a dollar bill, symbolizing the percentage of taxes that, according to our President, Harry Truman, is being used for military preparation and for fighting the "Cold War.