Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi was an American sociologist, best known for his principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the court case which bears his name, Hirabayashi v United States.
13 Facts About Gordon Hirabayashi
2.
Gordon Hirabayashi graduated from Auburn Senior High School in Auburn, Washington, and in 1937 went to the University of Washington, where he received his degree.
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Gordon Hirabayashi invited prosecution with the intention of challenging the legality of internment in the appellate courts.
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When Gordon Hirabayashi's case reached the US Supreme Court the ACLU took an active part.
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The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against him in Hirabayashi v United States, albeit with three Justices filing separate opinions that concurred with the Court's decision only with certain reservations.
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Gordon Hirabayashi agreed to this and, by the time he finished doing so, they had found the relevant paperwork.
7.
Gordon Hirabayashi taught in Beirut, Lebanon and Cairo, Egypt, before settling at the University of Alberta in Canada in 1959, where he served as chair of the sociology department from 1970 until 1975 and continued to teach until his retirement in 1983.
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Gordon Hirabayashi was an active member of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.
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Gordon Hirabayashi died on January 2,2012, at age 93, in Edmonton, Alberta.
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Gordon Hirabayashi had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 11 years earlier.
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Gordon Hirabayashi's personal fight to defend constitutional rights in the face of wartime hysteria was described in detail in a Public Broadcasting Service documentary about his court case.
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Gordon Hirabayashi spoke of discrimination that confronted nearly all persons of Asian ancestry in the United States, in the decades leading up to World War II.
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Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi was written by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Jessica Kubzansky, and starred actor Ryun Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi and multiple other roles.