Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi (
Japanese: 平林潔,
Hirabayashi Kiyoshi) was an
American sociologist, best known for his principled resistance to the
Japanese American internment during
World War II, and the court case which bears his name,
Hirabayashi v. United States died he was 93..
(April 23, 1918 – January 2, 2012)
Biography
Early life
Hirabayashi was born in
Seattle to a
Christian family who were associated with the
Mukyōkai Christian Movement. He graduated from
Auburn Senior High School in
Auburn, Washington, and in 1937 went to the
University of Washington, where he received his degree. At the University he participated in the
YMCA and became a religious
pacifist.
Although he at first considered accepting
internment, he ultimately became one of three to openly defy it. He joined the
Quaker-run
American Friends Service Committee. In 1942 he turned himself in to the
FBI,
and after being convicted for curfew violation was sentenced to 90 days
in prison. He invited prosecution in part to appeal the verdict all the
way to the
U.S. Supreme Court with the backing of the
ACLU. The Supreme Court, however, unanimously ruled against him in
Hirabayashi v. United States
(1943), albeit with three Justices filing separate opinions that
concurred with the Court's decision only with certain reservations.
Given wartime exigencies, officials would not transport him to prison or even pay his train fare, so he hitchhiked to the
Arizona
prison where he was sentenced to reside. Once there, wardens stated
they lacked the sufficient papers as he was two weeks late. They
considered letting him just go home, but he feared this would look
suspicious. After that they made the suggestion he could go out for
dinner and a movie, which would give them time to find his papers. He
agreed to this and, by the time he finished doing so, they had found the
relevant paperwork.
[1]
Hirabayashi later spent a year in federal prison for refusing
induction into the armed forces, contending that a questionnaire sent to
Japanese-Americans
demanding renunciation of allegiance to the emperor of Japan was
racially discriminatory because other ethnic groups were not asked about
adherence to foreign leaders.
[2]
Post-war career
After the war, he went on to earn
B.A.,
M.A. and
Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Washington. He taught in
Beirut,
Lebanon and
Cairo,
Egypt, before settling at the
University of Alberta
in Canada in 1959, where he served as chair of the sociology department
from 1970 until 1975 and continued to teach until his retirement in
1983.
[3] As a sociologist he did studies of
Jordan and the Russian
Doukhobors in
British Columbia,
Egyptian village political awareness,
Jordanian social change, and
Asian-Americans. He was an active member of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). After retirement he was active on behalf of
human rights.
Hirabayashi died on January 2, 2012, at age 93,
[4] in Edmonton, Alberta.
[5] He had been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease 11 years earlier.
[6][7]
Conviction overturned
Soon after retiring, Hirabayashi received a call that would prove consequential.
Peter Irons, a political science professor from the
University of California, San Diego,
had uncovered documents that clearly showed evidence of government
misconduct in 1942—evidence that the government knew there was no
military reason for the
exclusion order but withheld that information from the
United States Supreme Court.
With this new information, Hirabayashi’s case was reheard by the
federal courts, and in 1987 his conviction was overturned by the
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
[8]
“It was quite a strong victory—so strong that the other side did not
appeal,” says Hirabayashi. “It was a vindication of all the effort
people had put in for the rights of citizens during crisis periods.”
“There was a time when I felt that the Constitution failed me,” he
explains. “But with the reversal in the courts and in public statements
from the government, I feel that our country has proven that the
Constitution is worth upholding. The U.S. government admitted it made a
mistake. A country that can do that is a strong country. I have more
faith and allegiance to the Constitution than I ever had before.” [
A&S Perspectives, Winter 2000, University of Washington]
"I would also say that if you believe in something, if you think the
Constitution is a good one, and if you think the Constitution protects
you, you better make sure that the Constitution is actively operating...
and uh, in other words "constant vigilance". Otherwise, it's a scrap of
paper. We had the Constitution to protect us in 1942. It didn't because
the will of the people weren't behind it."
(Gordon Hirabayashi Interview, Copyright 2001 Smithsonian Institution)
On May 24, 2011, the U.S. Acting
Solicitor General,
Neal Katyal
delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall
marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Developing
comments he had posted officially on May 20,
[9]
Katyal issued the Justice Department's first public confession of its
1942 ethics lapse. He cited the Hirabayashi and Korematsu cases as blots
on the reputation of the Office of the Solicitor General - whom the
Supreme Court explicitly considers as deserving of "special credence"
when arguing cases - and as "an important reminder" of the need for
absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on
every case.
[10]
In 1999, the
Coronado National Forest in
Arizona renamed the former
Catalina Honor Camp in Hirabayashi's honor. The site, ten miles east of
Tucson, where Hirabayashi had served out his sentence of
hard labor in 1942, is now known as the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site.
[11]
Posthumous Honors
In 2008, the University of Washington awarded Hirabayashi and four
hundred former students of Japanese ancestry who were evacuated from the
school honorary degrees "nunc pro tunc" (retroactively). Although
Hirabayashi did not attend the ceremony, when his name was called he
received the loudest and longest ovation from the audience.
[citation needed]
Presidential Medal of Freedom
On April 27, 2012, President
Barack Obama announced that Hirabayashi would receive the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
for his principled stand against Japanese-American internment. The
President presented the award posthumously on May 29. It was accepted by
his family who traveled to Washington from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
[12]
California State Legislature
On January 5, 2012, Assemblymembers Yamada and
Furutani were granted
unanimous consent in the
California State Assembly to adjourn in memory of Gordon Hirabayashi.
[13]
Stage play
In 2007, the
Asian American theatre company
East West Players gave the world premiere of a
stage play based on Hirabayashi's true life story. The play was a
one-man show and was titled
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi.
East West Players described the play as follows: "During WWII in
Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi agonizes
over U.S. government orders to forcibly remove and imprison all people
of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he fights to reconcile his
country's betrayal with his Constitutional beliefs, Gordon journeys
toward a greater understanding of America's triumphs and failures."
[14]
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi was written by
Jeanne Sakata,
directed by Jessica Kubzansky, and starred actor Ryun Yu as Gordon
Hirabayashi and multiple other roles. Performances were held at the East
West Player's
David Henry Hwang Theatre in
Little Tokyo in
Los Angeles,
California. Previews were November 1–4, 2007.
[14] Opening night was on November 7, 2007 and the play closed on December 2, 2007.
[15] The
Los Angeles Times
gave it a mixed review: "Ryun Yu plays Hirabayashi... but even his
fine-grained tour de force doesn't negate the suspicion that another
structure, another style might make this material more exciting."
[16]
In 2008, playwright
Jeanne Sakata
adapted her full-length stage play into a shorter theatre-for-youth
production, which would tour the schools. Whereas the original one-man
show ran approximately 90 minutes, this new abridged version, aimed at
students, was about half as long, coming in at about 45 minutes. The
tour was produced by East West Players' Theatre For Youth program,
directed again by Jessica Kubzansky, and starred actor Martin Yu,
[17] who had been the
understudy in the original 2007 full-length production.
[14]
In 2010, East West Players' Theatre For Youth program produced another tour of
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi.
There were a few revisions to the script, but the play remained
approximately 45 minutes. However there was a new director and cast, not
connected to previous productions. It was directed by Leslie Ishii and
starred actor Blake Kushi.
[18]
This marked the first time a Japanese-American director as well as a
Japanese-American actor were used. The show was well-received as
indicated by the following review: "Kushi gave a one-man, tour-de-force
performance that floored the audience..."
[19]
Southern California Edison was the major sponsor of this tour of
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi.
The tour ran from February 12 to March 31, 2010. Shows were performed
at elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools (and one city
college
[20])
and also at community centers, churches, and public libraries. There
were 35 performances in total. The tour visited the following California
cities:
Alhambra,
Baldwin Park,
East Rancho Dominguez,
Fullerton,
Gardena,
Huntington Beach,
Long Beach,
Los Angeles,
Monterey Park,
North Hollywood,
Norwalk,
Pasadena,
Redlands,
Reseda,
San Bernardino,
San Fernando,
Van Nuys, and
West Covina.
In 2011, Ryun Yu reprised his performance of
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi, but this time in
Chicago,
Illinois.
[21] Silk Road Theatre Project,
in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago
and Millennium Park, presented the one-man show at the
Jay Pritzker Pavilion in
Millennium Park.
[22]
There were three performances total on January 13–15, 2011. The
production was directed by Jessica Kubzansky and produced by Jerry
O'Boyle.
[22]
In 2012, the play was renamed by its author
Hold These Truths,
and prepared by the Epic Theatre Ensemble of New York City for
presentation off-Broadway in prototype productions in March. Starring
Joel de la Fuente, it is on the Fall schedule to run from October 21 to
November 18, 2012.
[23]
To see more of who died in 2011
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