Here are a couple more data points about the war tax resistance of American Quaker Katsuki James Otsuka. First, a United Press dispatch from :
Refuses to Pay Tax, Sentenced
Indianapolis — UP — A Japanese-American Quaker today was fined $100 and costs and sentenced to 90 days in jail for failing to pay a $4.50 federal income tax.
Federal Judge Robert C. Baltzell sentenced Katsuki James Otsuka, 28, a student at Earlham college in Richmond, Ind.
Otsuka paid 71 per cent of his tax but refused to pay the other 29 per cent because it “would be used for military purposes.” He is a farm worker between terms at school.
Next, a second United Press dispatch (as distilled through an Indiana paper), from :
Hoosier Carpenter Among Those Who Refuse To Pay Tax
New York — (UP) — Only one Hoosier was listed among 40 “peacemakers” who refused to pay all of their federal income tax.
National headquarters of the organization here said the Hoosier was Roy Nusbaum, a carpenter of Wakarusa, Ind.
There would have been two from Indiana on the list, but Katsuki James Otsuka, former Earlham college student from Richmond, did not earn a taxable income in , the statement said.
Otsuka was in federal prison nearly half of because he refused to pay $4.50 in a previous year, a part of his income tax. The Peacemakers refuse to pay that part of their tax which, they say, corresponds to the percentage of national budget now allocated for defense.
In a prepared statement, the Peacemakers said President Truman’s decision to make the hydrogen bomb made them “even more determined than before” not to pay taxes.
