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Gordon Hirabayashi
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Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi (born April 23, 1918) is an American sociologist (now retired), 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.
Biography
Hirabayashi was born in Seattle to a Christian family who were associated with the Mukyokai Christian Movement. He graduated from Auburn High School in Auburn, Washington, and in 1937 went to the University of Washington, where he received his degree.
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Encyclopedia
Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi (born April 23, 1918) is an American sociologist (now retired), 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.
Biography
Hirabayashi was born in Seattle to a Christian family who were associated with the Mukyokai Christian Movement. He graduated from Auburn 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 into the FBI, and after being convicted for curfew violation was sentenced to 90 days in prison. He did this in part to appeal the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court with the backing of the ACLU. However the court unanimously ruled against him in Hirabayashi v. United States in 1943. Curiously they would not pay for him being sent to prison so he hitchhiked to the Arizona prison where he was sentenced to reside. Once there they 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.
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 his retirement in 1983. 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 has been an active member of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Since retirement he has been active in behalf of human rights.
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 Supreme Court. With this new information, Hirabayashi’s case was retried and in 1987 his conviction was overturned.
“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.”
Did the reversal change Hirabayashi’s view of the United States? Most definitely, he says. “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)
Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site
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.
Stage play
In 2007, the Asian American theatre company, East West Players (EWP), premiered a play based on the life of Hirabayashi. The play, written by Jeanne Sakata, was entitled, Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi, and starred Ryun Yu as Hirabayashi. It ran from November 7 through December 2, at EWP's David Henry Hwang Theatre in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles.
Honorary Degree
In 2008, the University of Washington awarded Hirabayashi and four hundred former students of Japanese ancestry who were evacuated from the school honorary degrees called "Nunc Pro Tunc" (Now For Then). Although Hirabayashi did not attend the ceremony, he received the loudest and longest ovation from the audience when his name was called than any other student.
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