Bukowski's 17 day detainment for the charge of draft evasion (1 Viewer)

Perhaps this was covered in another thread: can anyone point out a Poem (I believe he may of coverered in in Ham on Rye- but it's been a while since i've read it) in which he referred to this episode of this life?
 
He wrote about it in WW 2 & Moyamensing Prison: (Mockingbird Wish Me Luck) and in Doing Time with Public Enemy No. 1 (Tales of Ordinary Madness).
Also in Riot (The Days Run Away...).

Ham on Rye ends with Pearl Harbor being attacked (December '41) and he did time in Moyamensing Prison in July of 1944, so...
 
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Thanks, enjoyed WW2 & Moyamensing Prison. I found a short story: The Life of a Bum ( Septuagenarian Stew) in which he describes Harry being jeered at by some soldiers in 1943) and a little later in the barber shop he says- on thinking about himself - " He was without honor, a dog without a day"

His view of WW2, as dicussed a few times on this forum, was certainly unconventional even for the likes of Bukowski. Draft evasion in WW2 was something you wouldn't brag about in a working man's bar. He must have been asked by people though, quite alot I'd think, "why aren't you in the military?" etc
 
Here's another , unmartinized, poem about draft dodging:

escape

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Brilliant poem!

Buk's more political than I thought or maybe he's always been that way and that it's because I'm now seeing more of these 'untouched' poems.

I always loved his WWII poem.

His view of WW2, as dicussed a few times on this forum, was certainly unconventional even for the likes of Bukowski. Draft evasion in WW2 was something you wouldn't brag about in a working man's bar. He must have been asked by people though, quite alot I'd think, "why aren't you in the military?" etc
He often told them he was '4F', which was the truth.
 
enjoyed WW2 & Moyamensing Prison. I found a short story: The Life of a Bum ( Septuagenarian Stew) in which he describes Harry being jeered at by some soldiers in 1943
It has just occurred to me that the final part of the poem WW2 re-echoed in Bukowski's masterpiece The Life of a Bum. In the story the soldiers not only cursed him (Harry), but they'd also thrown fruits at him, fruits that he gratefully picked up and ate with relish. That's what struck me most: Harry's stoicism and serenity. People hate him, but he doesn't care and makes the best of it.
 
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Right, but easier said than done. The character of Harry only faced disdain and hatred, or, if he was lucky, indifference. I guess most people would react with self-doubts and try to conform one way or another. Or bury their heads in the sand. Not Harry. If anything he felt sorry for his fellow men.

By the way, I recognized that Bukowski seemed to like the name "Harry" a lot; he used this name in quite a number of his stories (one poem comes to my mind too, Out of the Mainstream). No news for the experts though.
 
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If I had have been around in those days I probably would have dodged the draft too. If there's another World War, I hope no one turns up. People vote politicians in and then the politicians steal the money out of the peoples pockets and send them to wars they start. It's staggeringly crazy, the whole ridiculous mess beggars belief. I don't vote, it seems to be nothing more than signing an abuse consent form.
Good on Hank.
 
Bukowski wrote about it many years later in a totally different time. But the truth is, many German Americans were hesitant to fight against the country they came from. This may not be the reason Buk wanted no part of it, but it wasn't such an "unpopular" stance among that segment of society.
 
many German Americans were hesitant to fight against the country they came from.
That may be, but there were plenty of old Germans in Minnesota when I was growing up, and all of those guys fought in WWII. Everyone in their generation did.

You can look at it any way you want to now, almost 75 years later, but not going - if you were physically able - was not an option in most of the country. The public was overwhelmingly in favor of joining the war after Pearl Harbor. To resist or decline or run away was not common, and wouldn't have been looked on very favorably by many.
 
There's always conscientious objection I suppose. It would be interesting to see how the world would react to a draft in this day and age. Since WW2 we've had small wars, isolated to certain regions, with their own bad guys, so a draft hasn't been needed really. And if you also factor in that governments have seemingly never been less trusted I think there'd be many more "draft dodgers" if a global conflict kicked off. But people are people, all too willing to throw their lives away, and take the lives of others at the whims of governments. Repeating the same cycles over and over and over. A bomb goes off, the president "it was *insert current bad guy*", bang , instant war, Cue all the bullshit speeches and patriotism, the government suddenly gives a fuck about the people and needs to fight to save their freedoms and so on and so forth. There's nothing like a good war to bring people together, ridiculous.
I for one am sick of that shit.
 
If they reinstated the draft, the public would very quickly sour on the idea of war. That would not serve the defense contractors who run this country well. They need an apathetic public with the poor fighting a never-ending war. One liberal member o the Congressional Black Caucus (Maybe Rangell) wrote a bill to reinstate the draft for this reason. He know that the best way to stop wars was to let people know that it will their kids dying for it.

Of course, the rich and powerful will always be able to get out of it, but the idea that the masses wont would very quickly turn the tide.

As a pacifist, I REALLY wish that they would bring back the draft, but only in the time of war and only if it is doled out fairly with NO deferments for any reason. No peacetime draft like in the past. Bring it back, and it is much more likely that it won't be needed.

Bill
 
As it is, the powers that be just have to keep jobs scarce for young people to get them to sign up for the military.
 
[... But the truth is, many German Americans were hesitant to fight against the country they came from. This may not be the reason Buk wanted no part of it, but it wasn't such an "unpopular" stance among that segment of society.

Liverpool born William Patrick Hitler (his nephew) enlisted and fought in the US navy in 1942 after being cleared by the FBI. Living in the US at the time he had written to Roosevelt two years earlier requesting to join, after he was declined by British military. :)

It must have been hard for them though, they would have been labelled (as in the UK) as hostile aliens, but the sheer numbers negated internment (unless they were deemed a risk) unlike the west coast japanese. General admiration for the economic "miracle" of Nazi Germany out of the Great Depression didn't make them nazis though.

More objectionable was the continued covert financial backing of the American industrialists in Germany both pre and post Pearl Harbour, ensuring business as usual, despite legislation regarding trading with the enemy.But of course, political ideology has convenient amnesia, given the nazis traded with the Soviets; raw material for weaponry up until Operation Barbarossa.
 

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