CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Liz Rees attended the panel discussion yesterday at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii titled "1st Lt. Ehren Watada: Dissenter or Deserter?" CLICK FOR LARGE

Soldier calls war a fraud

1st Lt. Ehren Watada reiterates his defense in a panel discussion

Army 1st. Lt. Ehren Watada maintains that the crux of his court-martial proceedings is the legality of the war in Iraq, despite what a military judge has said.

The Hawaii-born soldier who has refused to deploy with his unit to Iraq issued a statement read at a panel discussion of his case at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii yesterday.

Watada faces up to four years in prison when his court-martial begins tomorrow at Fort Lewis, Wash.

A military judge barred Watada from arguing the legality of the war as part of his defense, but Watada continues to insist the justification of the war was based on "fraud."

"As Americans, we would expect our service members to refuse to participate in a war that is clearly illegal and immoral," Watada said in the statement.

"For a soldier, it is a betrayal of his oath."

"He didn't expect to win," said Karen Nakasone, a panelist and past president of the Japanese American Citizen's League of Honolulu. "Sometimes you take a position to make a point, and you go public with it because your position is still right under a higher law."

Yesterday's panel also included University of Hawaii ethnic studies professor Jonathan Okamura and Ernie Kimoto, senior staff attorney for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a retired Marine Corps major and former Marine judge advocate.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Participating on the panel discussing 1st Lt. Ehren Watada's refusal to deploy were Jonathan Okamura, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa; moderator Riki May Amano, president and executive director of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii; retired U.S. Marine Corps Major Ernie Kimoto; and Karen Nakasone, former president of the Japanese American Citizens League. CLICK FOR LARGE

"He is still in uniform, and he joined the united service after the Iraq war commenced," Kimoto said.

Watada could be sent to prison if convicted of one count of missing movement and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer.

"Life after this would be very difficult," Kimoto said. "Let's not make it political, totally. Let's make sure we are there to support Ehren after he gets out. He may be coming out to us for a job. Let's try to support him before and after."

Nakasone said Watada's protest is a cultural breakthrough for Japanese Americans.

"My parents always told me, 'Don't be the nail that sticks out, because you'll be hammered down,' " Nakasone said. "In my generation we haven't had this kind of person, and I think it's been a wakeup call for many of us in our generation, whether you agree or disagree with him."

Diane Brandon, a 59-year-old Makaha resident, said she attended yesterday's discussion out of a sense of personal obligation to her own values.

"I just felt a closer attachment to him, hearing his words directly through a statement rather than through the TV or the papers," Brandon said. "I feel much less removed from the process."