Violence and Desolation

Abstract

Despite growing knowledge of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, the general public is not usually aware that internees in all 10 centers persistently resisted the conditions in camp. Defiance often took the form of recurring passive resistance. Obvious resistance rarely occurred, but from the very beginning of the incarceration, there were conflicts, not only between internees and administrators, but also among the internees themselves. There were also legal challenges of the authority of the federal government. Four Nisei, Mitsuye Endo, who challenged the government, not on the basis of the internment, but on the grounds of being denied the right to work; Fred Korematsu, who was jailed for refusing to report to an assembly center; Gordon Hirabayashi and Min Yasui, both convicted of violating the curfew, were working through convoluted court proceedings. Endo’s case was decided in her favor by the Supreme Court in 1944, mandating the reopening of the West Coast to Japanese Americans. The Supreme Court decisions against Korematsu and Hirabayashi were reopened and reversed in 1983. Min Yasui died before a decision was reached in his case.¹