akirlu: (Default)
[personal profile] akirlu
Gordon Hirabayashi died this week; he was 93. In 1942, while he was still just a college senior at UW, he refused to comply with the curfew and internment orders issued against West Coast Japanese Americans, and filed suits charging that these measures, and the wording of the draft letters issued to Japanese Americans, were unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. It took 46 years for him to be vindicated, but eventually, he was proved right on all counts, though not before serving multiple jail sentences for his refusals.

Oh, and he also went on, after the war, to get his Ph.D. in Sociology from UW. Here's to you Gordon, for doing what needed doing. Safe travels.

Date: 2012-01-06 10:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com
Thank you for sharing this. I probably wouldn't have known otherwise.

Date: 2012-01-06 10:29 pm (UTC)
ext_28681: (Default)
From: [identity profile] akirlu.livejournal.com
I might easily have missed it myself, had I not been working in the department where he earned his Ph.D.

Date: 2012-01-07 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] trinker.livejournal.com
...I didn't post the Seattle stuff, but I did post it in my FB...

Date: 2012-01-07 12:32 am (UTC)
ext_28681: (Default)
From: [identity profile] akirlu.livejournal.com
Thanks for the signal boost!

Date: 2012-01-07 04:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] trinker.livejournal.com
...of Hirabayashi's story in general?

Because I hadn't reposted your content.

Date: 2012-01-07 12:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vgqn.livejournal.com
Thank you for posting this. He and his fellow protesters should be much better known than they are.

Date: 2012-01-07 03:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] davidschroth.livejournal.com
I guess I'd regard him as more than a local hero.

Date: 2012-01-07 04:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] holyoutlaw.livejournal.com
Complete news to me, thank you for sharing.

Date: 2012-01-07 08:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] don-fitch.livejournal.com
I hadn't heard of him before this, but I'm always glad to know that America has produced heroes.

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