Farewell to a Local Hero

[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.