Interviews
Finding the Smoking Gun
And I picked out the box that said Korematsu v. United States. And I thought I would start with that one. It wasn't the first case, but I picked a file, and the box was full of manila folders. And I picked a file, just the first one on the top of the box, and opened it up. And there was a memo -- this was literally the first page I looked at of all these records, the first file. It may have been the second or third, but almost in the first five minutes that I was looking at these records, I found a memo. And it was written by a government Justice Department lawyer named Edward Ennis. And it was written to the solicitor general of the United States, Charles Fahy at that time. I knew their names already from WRA records that I'd looked at earlier, that Aiko and I had gone through from the WRA.
And in that memo, which was a memo to the solicitor general who was preparing to argue the Korematsu case before the Supreme Court in 1944, Ennis said, "We are in possession of information that shows that the War Department's report on the internment is a lie. And we have an ethical obligation not to tell a lie to the Supreme Court, and we must decide whether to correct that record."
And looking at that document, I still remember vividly thinking, "Oh, my God. This is amazing. This is like a smoking gun." Here's a lawyer for the government about to be, in a case about to be argued before the Supreme Court saying, "We are telling lies to the Supreme Court." And if I had only been a historian, I probably would have said, "Well, this is very interesting." Add something to my book. But as a lawyer, I realized this is, and in fact, the memo said, "This may approximate the suppression of evidence." As a lawyer, I realized this is dynamite.
Date: October 27, 2000
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Alice Ito, Lorraine Bannai
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
Explore More Videos
The Nikkei community that didn't support Former President Fujimori's election (Japanese)
(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum
The differences in attitude of pre-war and post war in terms of the President Fujimori presidency (Japanese)
(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum
President Fujimori as elected by Peru's general public (Japanese)
(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum
The Nikkei community's view toward Former President Fujimori (Japanese)
(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum
How he got into politics
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
“Work hard at the job you’re at”
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Beginnings of CWRIC
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Finding supporters for the bill
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Getting Jim Wright to sponsor the bill
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Findings of the commission report
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Speaker pro tem on the day the bill went to the House
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Citizen participation
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
The last hurdle – President Reagan
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation