Uprooted: Chapters 6–7

And the class would laugh and titter, as if it were a bad joke.

In 1943, civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins observed, “In wartime, judges wear epaulets under their robes.”

In May 1942, Gordon Hirabayashi, a senior at the University of Washington and a devout Christian, disobeyed the curfew, too.

Justice Murphy said that expelling “all persons of Japanese ancestry” from the West Coast “falls into the ugly abyss of racism.”

Jackson warned: “The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need....If the people ever let command of the war power fall into irresponsible and unscrupulous hands, the courts [will then] wield no power equal to its restraint.”

Jackson warned: “The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need....If the people ever let command of the war power fall into irresponsible and unscrupulous hands, the courts [will then] wield no power equal to its restraint.”

Jackson warned: “The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need....If the people ever let command of the war power fall into irresponsible and unscrupulous hands, the courts [will then] wield no power equal to its restraint.”

A clerical worker for the State of California, Endo and other Nisei had lost their jobs when the uprooting began.

Justice Murphy added that Endo’s confinement was but another example of the “racism inherent in the entire evacuation program.”

The justices did not, however, question the uprooting itself. This was no oversight. Their conclusions, as Justice Black wrote, deliberately avoided “the underlying constitutional issues.”

Farmers’ groups and labor unions feared competition from returnees. The Teamsters union was particularly irate.

Drivers still in uniform were stopped by highway patrol officers and arrested or beaten senseless for some infraction—or for none at all.

Facing the hero’s sister, Mary, he said: “The Distinguished Service Cross in itself is a small thing, but since it stands for gallantry in action, I hope you and your family will remember that Sergeant Masuda, in winning it, has also won the respect and admiration of all real Americans.”

In November 1946, Proposition 15 came before the voters. If passed, this measure would have made it impossible for people of Japanese descent ever to own land in the Golden State. Proposition supporters rehashed the timeworn charges of Japanese “disloyalty.”

At first, however, most relied on hostels set up by church and community groups.

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, who with her husband wrote the classic memoir Farewell to Manzanar (1973), was a child when the uprooting began.

“And in time,” wrote historian Bill Hosokawa, “tiny old ladies bent by toil, gray-haired old men gnarled by a lifetime of labor, men and women in their sixties and seventies and eighties...stood before federal judges and took the oath of allegiance as America’s newest citizens...."

For twenty-nine years, until his death in an airplane crash in 1974, he argued that official abuse had goaded loyal Americans into renouncing their birthright.

For twenty-nine years, until his death in an airplane crash in 1974, he argued that official abuse had goaded loyal Americans into renouncing their birthright.

“Whenever I thought of the innocent little children who were torn from home, school friends, and congenial surroundings, I was conscience-stricken.”

In the final analysis, he believed, “it was wrong to react so impulsively, without positive evidence of disloyalty” on the part of the uprooted.

These years were another time of turmoil in America.

Aided by Sansei activists, several former camp inmates, inspired in part by the Holocaust, began the so-called redress movement.

Like Germany, our country needed to admit its wrongdoing and pay reparations to—compensate financially—those it had injured.

Like Germany, our country needed to admit its wrongdoing and pay reparations to—compensate financially—those it had injured.

In vindicating Korematsu, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco said his case should serve as a warning: “It stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared military necessity...[we] must be prepared to protect all citizens from the petty fears and prejudices that are so easily aroused.”

In vindicating Korematsu, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco said his case should serve as a warning: “It stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared military necessity...[we] must be prepared to protect all citizens from the petty fears and prejudices that are so easily aroused.”

The nineteen hijackers belonged to al-Qaeda, an extremist Muslim group led by a Saudi Arabian renegade named Osama bin Laden.

“Fight in the cause of Allah against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits,” says a verse in the Qur’an (Koran), the Muslim holy book.

When the Prophet died in 632, his follower Abu Bakr became caliph, the Muslim community’s religious and military leader.

These said that Islam never permits wanton killing...and least of all the killing of innocents.

The caliph decreed: “Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those that are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy’s flock, save for your food.”

Nor does Islam permit suicide, because God is the Creator of Life, and none may defile God’s creation.

...the authorities have thwarted many other serious plots since 9/11.

Scalia knew that in wartime military necessity and national security should not be used to shield government actions from scrutiny.