EARLY in a new documentary about World War II, American soldiers push through the Normandy surf under German fire. This scene stands even a half-century later as the signal image of the generation that defeated Hitler and Hirohito. From the commemoration of D-Day's 50th anniversary in 1994 to its cinematic rendering in ''Saving Private Ryan'' to its prominence in books by Studs Terkel, Stephen Ambrose and Tom Brokaw, the storming of Omaha and Utah beaches has come to typify valor in pursuit of justice.

As the familiar events appear in this particular film, however, the off-screen voice of a retired special-education teacher named Asa Watkins tells a less known story. While 16 million Americans served in the military during World War II, Mr. Watkins counted himself among 42,000 conscientious objectors who refused to take arms. ''Sometimes I think those of us who believe in nonviolence believe ourselves to be a separate breed,'' he said, ''and we are wondering if somehow or other we are not fully human beings.''

Mr. Watkins's words, with their combination of belief and alienation, exemplify the spirit of a film that is dissident both by design and by coincidence. ''The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It,'' which closely follows the experiences of 10 conscientious objectors, runs counter to both the groundswell of gratitude for World War II veterans and the popularity of the present war against terrorism. Even as the majority of PBS affiliates show the documentary Tuesday at 10 p.m., the public-television system in Maryland has indefinitely postponed it in deference to the American troops in Afghanistan.

''Our original title was 'Against the Tide,' '' said Rick Tejeda-Flores, 57, who produced, wrote and directed the film with Judith Ehrlich. ''We have this mythology about World War II, which is that everyone in the country was going happily in the same direction. To find this small group in the opposite direction -- that's drama. We felt a lot of sympathy for the stand these men had taken. The question was, could we make a convincing case for it, or would we look foolish?''

The documentary calls the conscientious objectors ''heroes'' and dubs their resistance ''this American story.'' To that end, it traces the tradition of pacifism in the United States from the Revolutionary War to the cold war. It emphasizes the contribution that pacifists made to World War II, whether as noncombatants serving in the military or as home-front volunteers for experiments on disease and starvation. And it portrays their lasting influence in the civil-rights and anti-apartheid movements.

''This film is about the bravery required to live a life based on conscience,'' said Ms. Ehrlich, 53. ''These men made a tremendous and positive impact on American society, and they did it with the power of love. It is harder to tell the story of these quiet heroes than the guys with the guns. But it seemed worth the effort to try.''

That effort had its roots in a time and place more renowned for dissidence: 1965 in Berkeley, Calif., where Mr. Tejeda-Flores decided to apply for conscientious-objector status amid the escalating war in Vietnam. An art student adorned with beads and shoulder-length hair, he met a draft-resistance counselor who was graying and wore a business suit. The man, it turned out, was a Quaker who had refused to serve in World War II.

Over the next decade -- as Mr. Tejeda-Flores received his draft deferment, worked on the staff of César Chávez's United Farm Workers and studied filmmaking -- he reflected on the paradox of the encounter. ''Growing up in the Vietnam generation, we always put World War II in a different category,'' he recalled. ''Our position on Vietnam was that it was an unjust war. One of the trick questions the draft board used was 'What would you do about Hitler?' Yet here was someone who believed in pacifism in general.''

Ms. Ehrlich similarly separated her activism against the Vietnam War and nuclear arms from her supportive feelings about World War II, which she associated with her father's naval service and the Allied liberation of the concentration camps. A teacher and curriculum developer, she began making audio and film documentaries in the 1980's, largely on topics like Nicaragua under the Sandinistas. Then, in 1990, she met the wife of a World War II pacifist, who recounted her husband's virtual internment in a Civilian Public Service camp. That anecdote, in turn, stirred Ms. Ehrlich's childhood memory of watching a ''Young Dr. Kildare'' film as her mother mentioned that the star, Lew Ayres, had been a conscientious objector in World War II.

Suddenly intrigued, Ms. Ehrlich started work on a series for National Public Radio about pacifism in American history. Her research turned up several of the men who eventually figured prominently in ''The Good War and Those Who Fought It,'' and introduced her as well to their range of motivations and experiences. Stephen Cary, whose nonviolence was rooted in his Quaker faith, had adamantly wanted to prove his worth to wartime America through alternative public service. Bill Sutherland, an African-American affected by the example of Mohandas Gandhi, said that ''totalitarianism'' first needed to be defeated in the Jim Crow South. David Dellinger went to jail rather than even register with the Selective Service. Lew Ayres served as a combat medic.