Three lawyers who fought to overturn the convictions of Japanese Americans who “broke” curfews and “disobeyed” evacuation orders in the seething aftermath of Pearl Harbor told listeners Tuesday evening to “stand up” against government injustice.
The lawyers, who spoke to a crowd of more than 50 people in 110 Knight Law Center, said the emotional climate in America after Sept. 11 was dangerously close to the “hysteria” that prompted government officials to order the internment of more than 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
“It’s up to the rest of us to reach out to them,” attorney Dale Minami said of Arab Americans. “By coming together, it makes it impossible for the government to do that again.”
Minami argued for Fred Korematsu in the Californian’s attempt to reverse his 1944 Supreme Court conviction for failing to comply with an evacuation order. The Court reversed the conviction in a landmark 1983 decision.
Minami said in his travels to discuss the case, he has seen members of the Japanese American community support Arab Americans as the world searches for a scapegoat for the terrorist attacks.
The other lawyers, Rodney Kawakami and Peggy Nagae, also won landmark cases representing Japanese American clients convicted of similar crimes. University journalism Professor Lauren Kessler shared stories from her prose about an Oregon family forced to live in cramped internment camps.
“If there was even one example of someone of Japanese descent involved in espionage who gave the government a reason to have internment, it would be easier to understand,” first-year law student Jennifer Wang said.