Celebrate Fred Korematsu Day on January 30

Since 2018, January 30 has been celebrated in New York City as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. Why do we commemorate Fred Korematsu and his fight for justice? Here is the answer from the Fred Korematsu Institute:

Fred Korematsu was an American civil rights activist who stood up to the U.S. government’s wrongful incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast during WWII. Even though Fred was vilified and ostracized by his Japanese American community and had no support from his family, he was not afraid to speak up. He knew the government had violated the civil rights of thousands of its citizens and immigrants when it forced them to leave their homes and live in remote incarceration camps.

To learn more, go to https://korematsuinstitute.org/what-is-fred-korematsu-day/.

For a list of events celebrating Korematsu Day from around the country, go to https://korematsuinstitute.org/2024-fkd-events/.

AAARI Friday Night Lecture Series: Hold These Truths

  

Please join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute for a talk on, Hold These Truths: The Gordon Hirabayashi Case, by Jeanne Sakata, on Friday, September 28, 2012, from 6PM to 8PM, at 25 West 43rd Street, Room 1000, between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan. This talk is free and open to the general public.

Actor and playwright Jeanne Sakata will share her experiences in researching and writing her solo play HOLD THESE TRUTHS, inspired by the World War II experiences of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American college student who openly defied and legally challenged government orders to mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.

Jeanne will speak about what inspired her to write the play, the research and interviews she used as her primary source material, the challenges in writing the play and getting it produced, and its developmental progress since its world premiere in 2007 at the East West Players in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. She will also screen the documentary film, A PERSONAL MATTER, from which she first learned of Gordon Hirabayashi’s story.

HOLD THESE TRUTHS will have its New York premiere with the Epic Theatre Ensemble in October-November 2012.

To RSVP for this talk, please visit www.aaari.info/12-09-28Sakata.htm  

Can’t make it to the talk? Watch the live webcast on our homepage, starting 6:15PM EST. For details on all of AAARI’s upcoming events including our 11th Annual Gala, visit www.aaari.info

The Solicitor General and Confession of Error: The Hirabayashi Case

Thursday March 8, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
McNally Amphitheater, Fordham Law School, 140 West 62nd Street, NYC

In May 2011 Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal issued a “confession of error” on behalf of his office, acknowledging that it had failed in its response to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Katyal stated that the Solicitor General’s office had defended the internment policies, and in doing so had concealed information that undermined a key rationale for internment: that many Japanese-Americans posed a security threat. Professor Katyal will speak about the importance of, and the process for, confessions of error by the Solicitor General, within the framework of the Hirabayashi case.

Free and Open to the Public.  CLICK HERE to register.

Prof Katyal Confession of Error