SEATTLE WEEKLY
May 18, 2005

On American Soil (A Seattle Weekly Editor's Pick)
By Knute Berger

In the summer of 1944, African-American soldiers staged a nighttime attack on a cadre of Italian prisoners of war at Seattle's Fort Lawton (now Discovery Park). It was a shocking event, resulting in the largest and longest court martial of World War II. To top it off, the riot resulted in the death of a POW, whose body was found hanging from a rope the morning after. So here's the stunning historical headline: Blacks lynch white man.

In a city known for often burying its racial past, this event became little more than a footnote in local history. This was in part because so many of the main actors were just passing through, with black troops on their way to the Pacific front and the Italians dispersing home after the war. Also, the military was eager to have the embarrassing incident resolved and forgotten amid the war's critical, climactic year. Few since had ever heard of the case; fewer still knew any of the details, including local journalist Jack Hamann who first came across the story while reporting for KING-TV in 1987.

In the years following his initial broadcast, Hamann—also a seasoned TV reporter, network correspondent, and documentarian for CNN and PBS—dug deeper into the story and discovered there was much more to it. Indeed, he came to believe that the U.S. Army had—surprise, surprise—bungled the investigation of the riot, destroyed and withheld key evidence from the defense during the trial, and essentially covered its ass by railroading more than 40 black soldiers (including three who were charged with the POW's murder, despite a complete lack of evidence that they played any role in his death). Also noteworthy is the fact that the ambitious officer who served as chief prosecutor in the case was none other than Leon Jaworski, who later gained fame as special prosecutor during Watergate. If Jaworski got credit for helping to clear up the latter scandal, Hamann offers evidence that he assisted in covering up the Army's culpability and incompetence in the earlier one. It makes a sad story even sadder.

Hamann has done extensive research for On American Soil, including wading through volumes of documents and interviewing as many of the surviving cast of characters as possible. He also does a great job of telling a complicated tale with great care and ease: His prodigious archive work and straightforward narrative help the story fall easily into place. He offers fascinating insights into the policies and tensions of a segregated military in which white enemy prisoners sometimes had more rights than black GIs. More importantly, the story has contemporary resonance. In our own time of racially charged prisoner scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo (and other unnamed hellholes in Iraq and Afghanistan), the book serves as a reminder that not only is truth one of the first casualties in war, but it is often killed by those who fight in its name.

Knute Berger is editor-in-chief of the Seattle Weekly.

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