CAPAC Commends President Obama for Awarding Medal of Freedom to Civil Rights Hero
Washington, DC – Yesterday, President Obama posthumously awarded Gordon Hirabayashi the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his courageous resistance to forced relocation and internment during World War II. Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-32) Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15), CAPAC Chair Emeritus, released the following statements:
Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-32), CAPAC Chair: “At a time when Japanese Americans were suffering from discrimination and internment at the hands of their own government, Gordon Hirabayashi stood up to challenge an unjust law and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. It wasn’t until decades later that justice was finally served, and that was only as a result of his tireless efforts and unflinching faith in the protections of the U.S. Constitution. The American people owe Mr. Hirbayashi a debt of gratitude for his principled opposition to a harmful and misguided law, and I commend President Obama for recognizing his tremendous contributions by posthumously awarding him the Medal of Freedom today.”
Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15), CAPAC Chair Emeritus: “I extend my deepest congratulations to the family of Gordon Hirabayashi, in posthumously receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Gordon’s dedication to the most cherished principals of American democracy created an iconic moment in the history of the civil rights movement. His defiance of the incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, an incarceration which included myself, when I was less than one year old, is an indelible reminder that we must never let ‘war hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership’ derail the continuing mission of America—to live as one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Gordon Hirabayashi’s legacy is a lodestar for every American—inspiring us to work tirelessly to forge a more perfect union.”
Months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hirabayashi purposefully defied a curfew targeting citizens of Japanese ancestry and refused a directive to report to an internment camp. He instead turned himself in to the FBI to assert his belief that these practices were racially discriminatory. Consequently, he was convicted by a U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle of defying the exclusion order and violating curfew. Hirabayashi appealed his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him in 1943. He later spent a year in federal prison for refusing to complete a form to enter the armed forces that required Japanese-Americans to renounce any allegiance to the emperor of Japan. He argued that the prompt was discriminatory because it implied that Japanese Americans were loyal to a foreign power when other Americans were not required to make similar pledges.
Following World War II and his time in prison, Hirabayashi obtained his doctoral degree in sociology and became a professor. In 1987, his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Largely as a result of this ruling, Congress went on to pass legislation providing reparations for Japanese Americans interned during the war. Hirabayashi stated that his case was not a Japanese-American issue, but “an American case, with principles that affect the fundamental human rights of all Americans.” Hirabayashi died on January 2, 2012 at 93 years of age.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award presented by the President of the United States and is the highest civilian honor. The award is reserved for those individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
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The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) is comprised of Members of Congress of Asian and Pacific Islander descent and members who have a strong dedication to promoting the well-being of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Currently chaired by Congresswoman Judy Chu, CAPAC has been addressing the needs of the AAPI community in all areas of American life since it was founded in 1994.