Following in Their Fathers' Footsteps
What Fred Korematsu, Min Yasui and Gordon Hirabayashi began during WWII, their children are continuing today in the name of justice for all.
Their fathers courageously fought for justice during wartime hysteria, but it's for their grandparents that three Sansei with legendary last names signed onto an amicus brief in support of a class action lawsuit accusing federal officials of racial profiling and wrongful detainment.
It's a different time and a different war, but for Karen Korematsu-Haigh, Holly Yasui and Jay Hirabayashi there are too many similarities between the plight of their Issei grandparents after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the struggle of Arab and Muslim immigrants after Sept. 11th. So on April 3, Karen, Holly and Jay filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in the Turkman v. John Ashcroft case.
Like their famous fathers who sued the government during World War II for their wrongful conviction of resisting internment, the plaintiffs in the Turkman case sued federal officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, for targeting, abusively detaining and deporting them on alleged immigration violations after Sept. 11th. A New York federal district judge in June 2006 dismissed the plaintiffs' allegations and ruled that prolonged detention does not violate equal protection laws.
The similarities between the past and present cases run deep, except that the plaintiffs in the Turkman case are non-citizens - immigrants, the brief argued, like the Issei who worked hard to achieve the American dream, but were singled out because of race.
"Basically, the focus for all three of us has been our fathers - we're Japanese American. How could you do this to a citizen? Unfortunately there hasn't been a lot of focus on their immigrant parents," said Karen about her paternal grandparents, Kakusaburo and Kotsui, who were first forbidden by their adopted country from becoming citizens and owning land, and then ordered to live in desolate internment camps.
"I'm sad and sickened about that whole thought. My grandfather came to the United States, the land of opportunity, to do something to improve his life and to create a family and to add to mankind," said Karen.
The Korematsu family ran a flower nursery business in California's Bay Area before they received evacuation orders that Fred Korematsu - Karen's father - was famously convicted of resisting. The family was taken to the Tanforan Assembly Center and then transferred to Topaz.
"Who knows what was going through their minds, but it was much more difficult to endure that type of trauma when you are an adult. It's harder to bounce back. I know it literally killed my grandmother," said Karen about Kotsui, who died in 1951.
Kakusaburo, however, was an integral part of Karen's life until he passed away at the age of 93 in 1969, the same year she graduated from high school. The hardworking Issei loved watching television and spent many days on the couch with his granddaughter watching shows. Although she didn't speak Japanese and he didn't speak English, somehow they found a way to communicate.
But like many other Issei, Kakusaburo rarely talked about his internment experience and the time in history when the government called all JAs enemy aliens. Despite the government's mistreatment, Kakusaburo became an American citizen in 1953.
Their Nisei fathers fought for justice for their parents, said Karen. Now the children are carrying on the work of Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minoru Yasui who sued the government in the landmark Supreme Court case against the internment.
When Fred finally saw his name formally cleared, he wanted nothing more than to let his parents know, said Karen tearfully.
"You know the famous George Santayana quote, 'Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it'? It reminds people of what happened before and how important it is to prevent it from happening again," said Jay in a phone interview from Vancouver, Canada.
The amicus brief, filed by Eric Muller on behalf of Karen, Holly and Jay in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, argues that if it were unjust to single-out JAs during WWII based on race and national origin, then it is equally unjust to have detained the plaintiffs in the Turkman case.
"I feel strongly the commitment of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that an episode like the World War II incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry should never happen again. I see no better way to bring my scholarly expertise to bear on current events than to use my skills as a lawyer to work against a recurrence of racial injustice," said Muller, a legal historian at the University of North Carolina School of Law.
The Turkman lawsuit was filed April 2002 by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of a group of Muslims from Pakistan and Turkey who were detained for over six months, allegedly beaten and prohibited from practicing their religion. They were not accused or convicted of any criminal offense.
"The internment of Japanese Americans was a blot on our history we should never repeat. We let fear undermine our democracy then, and we seem not to have learned our lesson," CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said in a statement.
For these descendents of former internees, it was apparent that they needed to follow in their fathers' footsteps.
"It's my job is to carry on my father's legacy," said Jay, who has told Gordon about his participation in the amicus brief. "He said that it was the right thing to do."
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