Playwright and actor Jeanne Sakata  will perform and read from her play Hold These Truths , a biographical play about Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American resistor. During WWII in Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi fights the U.S. government’s orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he struggles to reconcile his country’s betrayal with his passionate belief in the U.S. Constitution, Hirabayashi begins a 50-year journey toward a greater understanding of America’s triumphs—and a confrontation with its failures. In May 2012, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Gordon Hirabayashi the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The performance will be followed by a Q&A with the artists and directors of both Behind the Fence  productions.