Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/677/

Impact of the Korematsu coram nobis case, historically and personally

I think, I think there's a, it's really fairly complex, I think in the sense that there has never been a case that would ever mean this much to me personally, politically or legally. This is a landmark legal case that we got to attack because it had a decision that we disagreed with, forty years later. We get to prove a novel legal theory of fraud on the Supreme Court. We get to validate or vindicate our parents who sacrificed so we could go to law school so we could learn enough skills then to turn around and be able to have the chance to vindicate our parents, which is a really interesting circle or cycle that we were able to do in this case. We were able to show through, historically, was that Japanese Americans were not a threat and there was no military necessity.


lawyers

Date: February 8, 2003

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda, Margaret Chon

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Sansei male. Born in Los Angeles, California on October 13, 1946, and grew up in Gardena, California. Received B.A. in Political Science from University of Southern California, graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1968. Received J.D., 1971, from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California. Mr. Minami was a co-founder of the Asian Law Caucus, Inc., a co-founder of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Asian Pacific Bar of California and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans.

He was involved in significant litigation affecting civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans and other minorities, including Korematsu v. United States, a lawsuit to overturn a 40 year old conviction for refusal to obey exclusion orders aimed at Japanese Americans during WWII, originally upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in landmark decisions; United Pilipinos for Affirmative Action v. California Blue Shield, the first class action employment lawsuit brought by Asian Pacific Americans on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans; Spokane JACL v. Washington State University, a class action on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans to establish an Asian American Studies program at Washington State University; and Nakanishi v. UCLA, a claim for unfair denial of tenure which resulted in the granting of tenure after widespread publicity over discrimination in academia.

Mr. Minami has taught at University of California, Berkeley and Mills College in Oakland, CA and has been a Commissioner of the State of California's Fair Employment and Housing Commission, a Commissioner on the State Bar of California, Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, the Chair of the Attorney General's Asian/Pacific Advisory Committee and a Member of Senator Barbara Boxer's Judicial Screening Committee. He was Chair of the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund Commission, appointed by President Clinton in 1994. Mr. Minami is a partner with Minami, Lew and Tamaki in San Francisco, and specializes in personal injury and entertainment law. (February 8, 2003)

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