Interviews

1. Questioning Curfew

2. A Dutiful Son

3. Bypassing the Constitution

Hirabayashi,Gordon

(1918-2012) Fought the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

Questioning Curfew

And, and then one day, I'm dashing home. "Hey Gordon, it's five to eight." I grabbed my stuff and it takes about five minutes to get home so I was just dashing home, and it hit me. A question that I should've faced earlier, just hit me. How come I'm dashing home and all your time keepers are still there? I didn't -- I just needed the question to be raised. I knew I couldn't answer it. You know, without saying, "I can't do it."

I turned around and went back to the library. "Hey, what's, what's the matter?" and I said, "Well, you guys are here." "Well, we got work to do." I said, "I got work to do, too. I decided if you guys are here, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work with you. I'll go back when you guys are ready to go." Nobody turned me in. And I didn't take that until it hit me. And when it hit me I knew, gosh, I can't do it. That's two-faced. The only reason I'm subject to go is because of my -- the way it's stated. I'm a person of Japanese ancestry. In fact, there were, there were Canadians in the group, who weren't even citizens, but they didn't have to go. Well, so I couldn't, I couldn't accept it.

curfews discrimination interpersonal relations racism

Date: April 26, 1999

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda, Alice Ito

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project

Interviewee Bio

Gordon Hirabayashi was born in 1918 in Seattle, Washington. As a student at the University of Washington, Hirabayashi was active in the YMCA and became a believer in social action and pacifism. With the outbreak of World War II and the consequential evacuation order of persons of Japanese ancestry, he chose to oppose the government's actions on the grounds of his personal beliefs as well as a constitutional issue.

Hirabayashi turned himself in to the FBI for violating curfew and was sentenced to prison for 90 days. With the support of the ACLU, his case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court in Hirabayashi v. United States. In 1943, the court ruled unanimously against him.

Some four decades later, Peter Irons uncovered documents that clearly showed government misconduct in 1942 that directly affected Hirabayashi's court case. With this new information, Hirabayashi's verdict was overturned in 1987 and long over-due justice was restored.

He passed away on January 2, 2012 at the age of 93. (January 4, 2012)