About Hirabayashi

In 1942, Gordon Hirabayashi, an undergraduate sociology major at the University of Washington, defied Executive Order 9066 which authorized the removal and incarceration of persons of Japanese descent along the west coast.  He was one of only three Japanese-Americans who resisted the removal order; the other two were Min Yasui in Oregon and Fred Korematsu in California.  Hirabayashi was tried and convicted in the Federal District Court of Seattle. His appeal went all the way to the Supreme Court which upheld his conviction and the curfew that had been imposed on Japanese Americans.  In 1987 the Supreme Court overturned Hirabayashi’s conviction and in 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed legislation that apologized for the internment on behalf of the U. S. Government.  About $1.6 billion in reparations were later disbursed to the surviving internees and their heirs.

The story of Gordon Hirabayashi is one of quiet courage, a young Quaker who stood up for his rights in the face of enormous pressure to obey what has come to be seen as both an immoral and unconstitutional action by the government.  Recent scholarship has suggested that the Hirabayashi case, which has long been overshadowed by the more famous Korematsu decision, is increasingly significant in light of the current War on Terror.