Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1781/

Being a Criminal Lawyer

I’ve been a criminal lawyer my whole career. So I’ve been in and out of prisons and jails and you know prisoners are my congregation. They’re the people that I’ve minister to and there will be people who are on the end of the snitches and collaborators and other people that will turn on the other inmates and the people that refuse to cooperate with it are my role models.

My dad refused to go along with some of the acts of submission that were being recommended by the citizens group against the Issei, the non-citizens—who were prohibited from being citizens—that was sort of my dad’s congregation. He ministered to them, he spoke for them, a lot of them couldn’t speak in English actually, and got marginalized in the camp along with them and I’ve always been very proud of that.

I felt like you know, it’s just like the immigrants today, we're standing up for the people that don’t have that standing and they turn into a voiceless mass that somebody’s gotta speak up for and their human rights are at stake, they are being violated on a daily basis...somebody’s gotta speak up for them. And so my brothers and sisters in the immigration law, I have great admiration for them, but if I could just speak another language, I would be doing it with them, but I can’t.

So, I think it’s that we talk about careers and lives, and yeah, I mean my career choice and what I continue to choose in that line of work, I think it’s affected by the camp, being Japanese-American, some of the things that I’m able to be proud of is that we had gone through some some other experiences that are even comparable that give us a perspective.


civil rights criminal defense lawyers families fathers imprisonment incarceration Japanese Americans law lawyers World War II

Date: July 14, 2020

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Matthew Saito

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association

Interviewee Bio

Mia Yamamoto is a Sansei transgender attorney and civil rights activist. She was born in the Poston concentration camp in Arizona in 1943 where her parents were incarcerated. She joined the Army and served in the Vietnam War. Inspired by her father's courage to speak out against the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, she attended the University of California Los Angeles's School of Law and has been a leader in the field of social justice, including working with the Japanese American Bar Association. (March 2021)

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.

Sue Embrey
en
ja
es
pt
Embrey,Sue

Prevailing Within the System

(1923–2006) Community activist. Co-founded the Manzanar Committee

en
ja
es
pt
Francis Y. Sogi
en
ja
es
pt
Sogi,Francis Y.

Meeting Japanese Americans from the mainland in MIS

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

en
ja
es
pt
Sue Embrey
en
ja
es
pt
Embrey,Sue

Fighting For What’s Right

(1923–2006) Community activist. Co-founded the Manzanar Committee

en
ja
es
pt
Francis Y. Sogi
en
ja
es
pt
Sogi,Francis Y.

Awareness of concentration camps as a Japanese American

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

en
ja
es
pt
Fred Korematsu
en
ja
es
pt
Korematsu,Fred

Manhunt

(1919 - 2005) Challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

en
ja
es
pt
Fred Korematsu
en
ja
es
pt
Korematsu,Fred

The Final Verdict

(1919 - 2005) Challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Trying to get back into camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Education in camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Lorraine Bannai
en
ja
es
pt
Bannai,Lorraine

Feeling angry upon reading of Supreme Court case, 'Korematsu v. United States'

(b. 1955) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt
Lorraine Bannai
en
ja
es
pt
Bannai,Lorraine

Is 'Korematsu v. United States' still a threat to American civil liberties?

(b. 1955) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt
Lorraine Bannai
en
ja
es
pt
Bannai,Lorraine

Working on the 'case of a lifetime'

(b. 1955) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt
Dale Minami
en
ja
es
pt
Minami,Dale

Role of the redress movement in helping Nisei to open up about their wartime experiences

(b. 1946) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt
Mako Nakagawa
en
ja
es
pt
Nakagawa,Mako

Search of family home by the FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor

(1937 - 2021) Teacher

en
ja
es
pt
Dale Minami
en
ja
es
pt
Minami,Dale

Reflections on the importance of history

(b. 1946) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt
Mako Nakagawa
en
ja
es
pt
Nakagawa,Mako

Not recognizing father after reunion at Crystal City, Texas

(1937 - 2021) Teacher

en
ja
es
pt