Conclusion
Five-year-old Mamoru “Mamo” Takeuchi reported for pickup in his Boy Scout uniform. Months earlier, his father, Jingo, was picked up by the FBI as a “dangerous” alien. Jingo’s “crimes” included teaching at a Japanese-language school and running a school that offered instruction in Japanese sword fighting. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, Centerville, CA, May 9, 1942.
Ernest Besig was the Founder and Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California from 1934-1971. In 1942, Besig visited Fred Korematsu in jail after Korematsu refused to be relocated. Besig asked if Korematsu would be the plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the forced removal of people of Japanese ancestry as a violation of basic constitutional rights. Besig explained that strong anti-Japanese prejudice, coupled with judicial deference to wartime military decisions, made their prospects grim. Nevertheless, Korematsu agreed to be a plaintiff. Besig’s assessment proved right, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the exclusion laws. However, the case eventually became a symbol of injustice. Korematsu later recalled that Besig “was sticking his neck out for me” because “at the time, racial prejudice was pretty strong.” Besig had even faced opposition from within the national ACLU to bring the case forward. His willingness to continue, regardless of objections, is a powerful example of solidarity. During the war, Besig and the ACLU also investigated harsh conditions in the incarceration camps and defended the rights of conscientious objectors.
One hundred and thirteen of Fusaye Yokoyama’s friends and acquaintances signed their names on this shirt while she was at Tule Lake Relocation Center in 1943. She then embroidered over their signatures. An American citizen, Yokoyama was born in Perkins, CA. Photograph by David Izu. Japanese American Archival Collection #JA 141, Special Collections and University Archives, California State University, Sacramento (CSUS).