As a scholar of Japanese American women’s literature, though, I know that silence has multiple meanings. Layers of silence have veiled Endo and her case for years. By also featuring a Nisei woman, I hoped to deepen the narratives about who was resisting, and how. Thanks to the work of scholar Mira Shimabukuro, we learned more about-and dramatized the story of-the Issei women who were important to the draft resistance movement. The widely known exceptions to the narrative of Japanese American compliance remain overwhelmingly male: the principled stances of Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and Minoru Yasui, who took their cases to the Supreme Court alongside Endo the collective organizing behind the Heart Mountain draft resisters, who refused to go from the camp to the U.S. We wanted to share a story of Japanese American resistance: not to the initial eviction, but to the unjust and unconstitutional conditions of their incarceration. The graphic novel, which became We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, pushes back against a dominant narrative about the camps: that Japanese Americans not only went there willingly, but stayed there willingly in order to prove their loyalty to the United States. When I was hired as the only woman on a creative team of four to create a graphic novel on one of the most important stories in the history of Japanese America, I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to tell Endo’s story. ![]() Why, I wondered, did I know so little about Endo herself, and why didn’t everyone know more about the case that helped lead to the closing of the concentration camps for all Japanese Americans? But while Endo’s case is familiar to those in legal circles and Japanese American studies, her story is largely unknown by the general public. Of the four young Nisei-American-born children of Japanese immigrants-who contested the grounds of their incarceration at the Supreme Court, Endo was the only one who won her case, and unanimously at that.Īs a daughter, granddaughter, and niece of Japanese American camp survivors, I have been reading about my community’s wartime incarceration for most of my life. At the time it was taken, circa 1944, she was incarcerated in an American concentration camp in Topaz, Utah. ![]() Mitsuye Endo has also been recommended for a medal.Since 2017, a famous black-and-white photo has stayed with me: a young Japanese American woman sitting in front of a typewriter, hands poised in the home position, looking over her left shoulder and directing a close-lipped smile at the camera. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was also awarded to Fred Korematsu in 1998 and to Gordon Hirabayashi (posthumously) in 2012. Yasui was one of four individuals to take his challenge all the way to the Supreme Court. Courtesy of Holly Yasui and Minoru Yasui Tribute Committee “This medal expresses our country’s appreciation for the continued lessons we learn from his courage and lifetime of advocating for civil rights, providing legal assistance to Japanese American and immigrant communities, and building bridges with communities of color.” Minoru Yasui working at his desk in 1983. "Min Yasui was an American civil rights leader who bravely challenged our government’s incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry in WWII in the Supreme Court,” said Representative Mike Honda. ![]() ![]() Although Yasui’s conviction was later vacated, it was never overturned, in part because he passed away before his court case was completed.Īfter World War II, Yasui continued to fight for the civil rights of communities of color. On March 28, 1942, Yasui, who was an attorney, deliberately violated the military curfew placed on Japanese Americans during World War II and demanded to be arrested.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |