Hirabayashi Speaks on Internment

Gordon Hirabayashi, made famous by fighting the government's policy of forcing Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II, spoke about his experiences at the Kennedy School of Government last night.

Hirabayashi came to address an Institute of Politics (IOP) forum about his personal experiences as a nisei(second-generation Japanese-American) after Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt '04.

The order directed that all Americans of Japanese ancestry be relocated to inland internment camps in an effort to thwart Japanese espionage.

IOP Director and former Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), who introduced Hirabayashi, began the evening with a personal story about growing up in Wyoming, when the government rapidly built the Heart Mountain internment camp outside his hometown to hold 11,500 people.

"They built shanties...that looked like box cars," Simpson said. "People were scared that the `Japs' would escape."

In 1942, Hirabayashi and his family, who lived in Auburn, Wash., were ordered to move to a similar camp.

Hirabayashi's battle began after he cited the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits seizure of property and violation of rights without due process of law. He wrote a letter of protest and refused to relocate.

He later turned himself in to the FBI, who offered to drop charges against him if he would "quietly" join the camps. Hirabayashi, a native-born American citizen, refused and took his case to court.

Simpson played a segment of the documentary A Personal Matter, which summarized Hirabayashi's struggle. According to the film, Hirabayashi's first act of civil disobedience was when, as an undergraduate at the University of Washington, he refused to obey a curfew prohibiting German, Italian and Japanese aliens, as well as Japanese-Americans, to be outside after 8 p.m.

"I obeyed the curfew at first. It was when my [non-Japanese] dorm-mates took it upon themselves to be my time keepers, a thought occurred to me," Hirabayashi said. "Why am I running home and my roommates are not? I turned around and went back. I had work to do."

After refusing to be interned, he took his case to the local court, where he argued the relocation policy was unconstitutional because it deprived citizens of due process.

After losing that case, he appealed the case through the judicial system until he finally argued before the Supreme Court. Again, he lost, after the Court cited government documents proving the "danger" of Japanese-American espionage.

It was only 40 years later, when Hirabayashi's friend Peter Irons discovered evidence proving the government had fabricated evidence and lied to the Supreme Court, that Hirabayashi appealed his case yet again, winning this time in Hirabayashiv. United States.

"It may seem I was determined to battle to the hilt from the beginning, but it was something that grew," Hirabayashi said.

Hirabayashi concluded by stressing the importance of faith in the Constitution. "For a while, I thought the Constitution had failed," said Hirabayashi.

"It takes a crisis to tell us that unless citizens are willing to stand up for [the Constitution], it's not worth the paper it's written on," he added.