Five Views of Redress: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary

Five Views of Redress: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary

Guest curator: Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (1) (NCJAR Photo)
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (1)
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians chief researcher; member of the National Council on Japanese American Redress (NCJAR)
Photograph commemorating the efforts of the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR) to win redress through a class action suit against the government, 1987. The frame was made by NCJAR member Hannah Tomiko Holmes. The photograph was taken by Doris Sato.
Gift of Hannah Tomiko Holmes (deaf WWII internee) 88.4.1B (photo)
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April 20, 1987, when this photograph was taken, was an historic day for Japanese Americans. The Supreme Court held a hearing of William Hohri et al., v. U.S.A., the class action lawsuit for redress filed by the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR).
Left to right: Fred T. Korematsu, Gordon K. Hirabayashi, Michi N. Weglyn, William M. Hohri, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, and Harry Y. Ueno.
Korematsu and Hirabayashi were convicted by the Supreme Court during World War II for disobeying military orders. Forty years later, their wartime sentences were vacated due to irrefutable evidence of government wrongdoing. Weglyn authored the influential book, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps, which presented authentic documentation of egregious actions taken by the highest civil and military authorities against Japanese Americans. Hohri, as NCJAR chairperson and the primary named plaintiff, successfully carried out the organization’s goal to bring the cause for redress into the judicial arena. Herzig-Yoshinaga participated in the search for evidentiary documentation in the Korematsu and Hirabayashi coram nobis cases and served as researcher for Hohri v. U.S.A. Ueno, who challenged injustices in the camps, was condemned by authorities as a troublemaker, confined in isolation camps, and was one of several named plaintiffs in Hohri v. U.S.A.
Hannah Tomiko Takagi Holmes, incarcerated at Manzanar and also a NCJAR plaintiff, is one of many victims of the camps whose contributions to the redress movement is among the lesser known stories of those who confronted the government in the courts for deprivation of constitutional rights.
--
NCJAR Photo
Photograph commemorating the efforts of the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR) to win redress through a class action suit against the government. 1987
Photograph taken by Doris Sato.
Fabric frame made by NCJAR member Hannah Tomiko Holmes.
Figures represented: Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, Michi Weglyn, William Hohri, Aiko Herzig and Harry Y. Ueno. Gift of Hannah Tomiko Holmes (deaf WWII internee)
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
Accession #88.4.1b
Location 16.SH.F.2.BOX5

Guest curator: Eric Nakamura (George Takei)
Eric Nakamura
Writer; co-founder and editor of Giant Robot magazine
Campaign poster for George Takei's bid for Los Angeles City Council, 1973.
Gift of George Takei (98.361.3)
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Picking an artifact related to Redress proved difficult. What links me to the Redress Movement? I was too naive to have heard of it while I was in junior high and high school, except for the $20,000 reparations check that went to my father. Could an artifact just be that memory of a check? A family photo? A rice bowl? What other items resonate with Redress for those who are about my age or younger?
Looking through the shelves and drawers of historical documents, objects, and art, I came across a 1973 poster of George Takei running for Councilman in Los Angeles. My first impression is that it’s amazing to see a Japanese American face on a political campaign poster, especially from the 1970s.
But how does the poster relate to Redress? I feel that the poster speaks volumes since although it’s from 1973, it represents the collision of Japanese American history and pop culture. We don’t learn or hear about Redress in school history books; we hear about it through conversations, historical articles, and through outspoken people like George Takei. Imagine, he played an original Star Trek character in the 1960s, and could easily be cruising the Trekkie conventions around the world. Yet he forged a career in politics, social issues, and causes including Redress and the Human Rights Campaign. He even champions the museum you’re standing in now. Whether or not you enjoy his show business career, which may actually be yet to peak, you can’t deny the inspiration he provides from his off-camera work. Imagine, he actually lost that campaign in 1973. Know who won?
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George Takei
Framed campaign poster for George Takei's bid for Los Angeles City Council, 1973
Gift of George Takei
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
Frame 22 x 17 1/8 in.
H: 21 1/2 in, W: 16 1/2 in
Accession #98.361.3
Location 75.PR.I.1

Guest curator: The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye (Photos of service men and women)
Senator Daniel Inouye
United States Senator; Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
Photographs of service men and women taken by Walter Muramoto, the "unofficial" photographer at Rohwer concentration camp, Arkansas, 1944-45.
Gift of the Walter Muramoto Family (97.292.3C, 3E, 3K, 3P, 3X)
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When the Hawaii contingent of the 442nd arrived in Mississippi for military training we were not aware of Executive Order 9066 because of wartime censorship of news. When the mainland contingent of the 442nd arrived none of them to my best of my knowledge told us about their families’ incarceration.
About a month and a half later the regiment received invitations to visit two places in Arkansas, Jerome and Rohwer. We assumed these were Japanese communities. I was invited to Rohwer. When my convey got within sight of Rohwer, we saw barbed wire fences, machine gun towers and long rows of barracks. When we got to the gate, it was a shock that I will never forget. The faces inside were “our faces”, the faces of Japanese Americans. When we learned the details we could not believe that men, whose families were in these camps, had volunteered to stand in harm’s way and to die if necessary for their country. Ever since that moment I have asked myself, would I have volunteered under those circumstances? I am not able to give a forthright and honest answer.
The men of Rohwer and the other camps served with great distinction, receiving hundreds of medals. Many were wounded and many died. Although these men never heard the apology or received compensation, I am convinced that it was their sacrifices that made it possible for the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
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Photos of service men and women
Photographs of service men and women taken by Walter Muramoto, the "unofficial" photographer at Rohwer concentration camp, Arkansas, 1944-45.
Gift of the Walter Muramoto Family
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
(woman)
H: 2.5 in, W: 2.5 in
Accession #97.292.3c
Location 16G2Box3
(2 men and car)
H: 2.635 in, W: 2.5 in
Accession #97.292.3e
Location 16G2Box3
(group image)
H: 2.625 in, W: 2.5 in
Accession #97.292.3k
Location 16G2Box3
(ukulele)
H: 3.5 in, W: 2.4 in
Accession #97.292.3p
Location 16G2Box3
(soldier in front of barracks)
H: 5 in, W: 3.5 in
Accession #97.292.3x
Location 16G2Box3

Guest curator: Cynthia Kadohata (2) (Color pencil drawing made in Manzanar)
Cynthia Kadohata (2)
Novelist; John Newberry Medal recipient for the most distinguished children’s book of 2005
Color pencil drawing made in Manzanar concentration camp, California, 1945.
Gift of Yoshiye Togasaki (99.14.3)
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“Dogs make us human.”
Old aboriginal saying
Some researchers believe that humans’ special relationship with dogs changed both of our fates. We would be different if dogs had not evolved by our side, and they would be different as well. What to make, then, of people who are not allowed their dogs?
I am very moved by the photograph of the dog in the back of a truck. Obviously, the worried family will not be allowed to relocate with their family pet. I’ve read that the animal shelters grew full at the time of the evacuation. It’s just another way that our ancestors – our grandfathers and grandmothers, our aunts and uncles – were stripped of their humanity. It’s another way that their hearts were torn out.
Then, in the drawing of a child with a dog, you see someone restoring the natural order, restoring a facet of a child’s humanity. That was the struggle one had in the camps – the struggle to maintain your humanity. This young child is winning that struggle.
Nothing can ever change what happened – it is what it is. But redress restored my faith that humanity triumphs in the end.
--
Color pencil drawing made in Manzanar
Color pencil drawing made in Manzanar concentration camp, California, 1945.
Gift of Yoshiye Togasaki
H: 9 in, W: 12 in
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
Accession #99.14.3
Location 22D2Box2

Guest curator: Cynthia Kadohata (1) (Photo of removal from Bainbridge Island)
Cynthia Kadohata (1)
Novelist; John Newberry Medal recipient for the most distinguished children’s book of 2005
Seattle Post/Intelligencer photograph of the forced removal of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island, Washington, 1942.
Courtesy of the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, Washington (P1-28046) Seattle Post/Intelligencer Collection; Gift of Manzanar Reunion Committee - 1987 (87.34.11)
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“Dogs make us human.”
Old aboriginal saying
Some researchers believe that humans’ special relationship with dogs changed both of our fates. We would be different if dogs had not evolved by our side, and they would be different as well. What to make, then, of people who are not allowed their dogs?
I am very moved by the photograph of the dog in the back of a truck. Obviously, the worried family will not be allowed to relocate with their family pet. I’ve read that the animal shelters grew full at the time of the evacuation. It’s just another way that our ancestors – our grandfathers and grandmothers, our aunts and uncles – were stripped of their humanity. It’s another way that their hearts were torn out.
Then, in the drawing of a child with a dog, you see someone restoring the natural order, restoring a facet of a child’s humanity. That was the struggle one had in the camps – the struggle to maintain your humanity. This young child is winning that struggle.
Nothing can ever change what happened – it is what it is. But redress restored my faith that humanity triumphs in the end.
--
Photo of removal from Bainbridge Island
Seattle Post/Intelligencer photograph of the forced removal of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island, Washington, 1942.
Photo of couple with dog
Gift of Manzanar Reunion Committee-1987.
Courtesy of the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, Washington (P1-28046) Seattle Post/Intelligencer collection
H: 8 in, W: 10 in
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
Accession #87.34.11
Location 12D2Box1

Guest curator: Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (2) (Handmade Dolls)
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (2)
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians chief researcher; member of the National Council on Japanese American Redress (NCJAR)
Handmade dolls commemorating the efforts of the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR) to win redress through a class action suit against the government, 1987. The dolls were made by NCJAR member Hannah Tomiko Holmes.
Gift of Hannah Tomiko Holmes (deaf WWII internee) 88.4.1C (dolls)
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April 20, 1987 was an historic day for Japanese Americans. The Supreme Court held a hearing of William Hohri et al., v. U.S.A., the class action lawsuit for redress filed by the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR). The extraordinarily talented Hannah Tomiko Takagi Holmes created these dolls to represent the individuals involved in the court case.
Left to right: Fred T. Korematsu, Gordon K. Hirabayashi, Michi N. Weglyn, William M. Hohri, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, and Harry Y. Ueno.
Korematsu and Hirabayashi were convicted by the Supreme Court during World War II for disobeying military orders. Forty years later, their wartime sentences were vacated due to irrefutable evidence of government wrongdoing. Weglyn authored the influential book, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps, which presented authentic documentation of egregious actions taken by the highest civil and military authorities against Japanese Americans. Hohri, as NCJAR chairperson and the primary named plaintiff, successfully carried out the organization’s goal to bring the cause for redress into the judicial arena. Herzig-Yoshinaga participated in the search for evidentiary documentation in the Korematsu and Hirabayashi coram nobis cases and served as researcher for Hohri v. U.S.A. Ueno, who challenged injustices in the camps, was condemned by authorities as a troublemaker, confined in isolation camps, and was one of several named plaintiffs in Hohri v. U.S.A.
Hannah Tomiko Takagi Holmes, incarcerated at Manzanar and also a NCJAR plaintiff, is one of many victims of the camps whose contributions to the redress movement is among the lesser known stories of those who confronted the government in the courts for deprivation of constitutional rights.
--
Handmade Dolls
Handmade dolls commemorating the efforts of the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR) to win redress through a class action suit against the government. 1987
Made by NCJAR member Hannah Tomiko Holmes.
Figures represented: Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, Michi Weglyn, William Hohri, Aiko Herzig and Harry Y. Ueno. Gift of Hannah Tomiko Holmes (deaf WWII internee)
Dolls are 16" tall
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
Accession #88.4.1C
Location 87.SH.A.1.BOX1

Guest curator: Frank Emi (Chest of Drawers)
Frank Emi
One of the seven leaders of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee; civil rights activist
Chest of drawers made out of redwood by Frank Emi during his incarceration at Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming, 1942.
Gift of Frank Emi (2003.294.1)
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I built this chest of drawers from scrap lumber in the fall of 1942 while incarcerated at the Heart Mountain, Wyoming concentration camp. The barracks were bare except for a potbelly stove and a single light bulb dangling from the roof. I had also built a vanity with a 36-inch mirror (purchased from a mail order catalog), which was my pride and joy. But because I was not at Heart Mountain to assist with the transfer back home, my family was unable to bring the vanity back to Los Angeles. When the camps were closing, six leaders of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and I were incarcerated in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, after losing our constitutional challenge to the government’s policy of drafting young men from the camps into the military. However on appeal, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals eventually reversed our convictions, stating our right to challenge a law that we felt was unconstitutional. But that is another story.
In 1982, members of NCRR (National Coalition for Redress/Reparations) learned of our story—the only organized legal resistance movement within the ten camps—and asked me to talk about it. Most of them were Sansei, who had not suffered the injustice and humiliation we had been subjected to, and I saw how dedicated they were in their efforts in the face of tremendous odds, much like our fight for justice at Heart Mountain. In 1984, I felt compelled to join them in their fight for redress and reparations.
For me, the most memorable event of the redress movement was when over 100 members of NCRR went to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on behalf of H.R. 442, the redress and reparations bill. The bill passed, and the rest is history.
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Chest of Drawers
Chest of drawers made out of redwood by Frank Emi during his incarceration at Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming, 1943.
Gift of Frank Emi
H: 38 in, W: 30 in, D: 12 in
Japanese American National Museum permanent collection
Accession #2003.294.1
Location 92.SH.C.3
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 culminated almost two decades of struggle to win official government acknowledgement of the violation of Japanese American constitutional rights during World War II. The Act called for a formal apology written by the president and the token reparations amount of twenty thousand dollars for each surviving person who had been incarcerated in America’s concentration camps during World War II. This unprecedented event had ramifications for those Japanese Americans who had been denied due process of law as well as for all American citizens whose freedoms and liberties are protected under the United States Constitution.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the Japanese American National Museum invited five notable community members to explore the museum’s permanent collection and to select artifacts for display that symbolize the significance of the movement for redress and reparations. The accompanying labels present the reflections and words of these distinguished guest curators.
The selection of objects reflecting the diverse experiences of these five individuals highlights the richness and depth of the National Museum’s exceptional permanent collection. The items also reveal the varied ways in which the WWII incarceration experience and the redress movement continue to resonate within the lives, memories, and imagination of Japanese Americans.
The five guest curators are Frank Emi, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye, Eric Nakamura, and Cynthia Kadohata.
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