Families of Asian American pioneers come to the defense of Muslims

LIA CHANG

Fred Korematsu

ASAM NEWS

THE FAMILIES of Gordon Hirayabashi, Minoru Yasui and Fred Korematsu are carrying on the legacies of these courageous Japanese American pioneers.

All three men challenged the constitutionality of the evacuation orders that lead to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.

All three men paid a personal price for their activism.

Now their children are speaking out against the Muslim travel ban, drawing parallels between incarceration camps and the travel ban today.

They’ve filed amicus briefs opposing the executive order in the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was scheduled to be heard today, but was cancelled.

“I haven’t given up hope,” Karen Korematsu, 67, said to USA Today. “My father waited 40 years for justice.”

More than 40 years after World War II, the criminal records of all three men were thrown out after it became known the government withheld evidence that contradicted their rational that the camps were needed for national security.

According to the International Examiner, the briefs state

“Rather than repeat the injustices of the past,” the Court “should heed the lessons of Korematsu, Hirabayashi, and Yasui: Blind deference to the Executive Branch … is incompatible with the protection of fundamental freedoms.”

“Clearly it was an issue of ‘racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership,’” Holly Yasui said. “We haven’t learned the lesson that the Japanese American internment gave to us.”

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