Basic Information
Names: Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui
Nicknames: Professor Hirabayashi and Mr. Yasui
Born: April 23rd, 1918, and October 19th, 1916
Died: January 2nd, 2012, and November 12th, 1986
Nationality: American
Hometowns: Seattle, Washington, and Hood River, Oregon
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupations: Sociologist/Professor and Lawyer
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Spouses: Susan Carnahan and True Shibata
Children: Marion Oldenburg, Jay Hirabayashi, and Sharon Yuen and Iris Yasui, Holly Yasui, and Laurel Yasui
Friends: Japanese Americans, Canadians, Quakers, Religious Pacifists
Foes: FDR, Henry L. Stimson, John L. DeWitt
Analysis
Now we're going to hear about some people being awesome and fighting back instead of people abusing their power and being racist. Refreshing, huh?
A Bold Move in the Name of Justice
A U.S. citizen by birth, Seattle native Gordon Hirabayashi was a Japanese American who refused to submit to unfair internment resulting from E.O. 9066. His defiance of evacuation orders and other government-sanctioned injustices against Japanese Americans led to his arrest by the federal government in 1942.
The legal proceedings following his imprisonment culminated in the Supreme Court case Hirabayashi v. United States, in which he attempted to appeal the guilty verdict for violating the rules governing Japanese Americans in the military exclusion areas. The court ruled against him, and he was handed a 90-day sentence to be served at an Arizona labor camp. (Source)
Supremely Unfortunate
The same day the Supreme Court ruled on Hirabayashi v. United States, it also ruled on a related case called Yasui v. United States. (Source)
Under strikingly similar circumstances, Minoru Yasui of Hood River, Oregon, was arrested when he sought to defy military area restrictions in order to test their constitutionality. Like Hirabayashi, his case skyrocketed up the judicial ladder to the top rung.
And, like Hirabayashi, the court ruled against him. In the end, he was sent to an internment camp, anyway.
Some Unsolicitous Behavior
Years later, in the 1980s, evidence was discovered that the Office of the Solicitor General had been a big, unethical jerk and withheld important information from the Supreme Court during the rulings on Hirabayashi v. United States and Yasui v. United States. The information that it failed to share was a government report citing Japanese Americans posed no significant threat of sabotage against the United States.
As in, they weren't dangerous. Like, not at all.
The absence of this report directly influenced not only the final verdict of Hirabayashi's and Yasui's respective cases, it also created a precedent for the legality and necessity of the policies enacted by E.O. 9066.
But it was just one big lie.
This revelation, upsetting as it was, prompted the overturning of both convictions 44 years after the fact. It was a personal victory for both men and a landmark victory for Japanese Americans.
During the Obama administration, both men received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, for their contributions to civil rights.