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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2015)
OPINION Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER July 20, 2015 Volume 25 Number 14 July 20, 2015 ISSN: 1094-9453 The Asian Reporter is published on the first and third Monday each month. Please send all correspondence to: The Asian Reporter 922 N Killingsworth Street, Portland, OR 97217 Phone: (503) 283-4440, Fax: (503) 283-4445 News Department e-mail: news@asianreporter.com Advertising Department e-mail: ads@asianreporter.com General e-mail: info@asianreporter.com Website: www.asianreporter.com Please send reader feedback, Asian-related press releases, and community interest ideas/stories to the addresses listed above. Please include a contact phone number. Advertising information available upon request. Publisher Jaime Lim Contributing Editors Ronault L.S. Catalani (Polo), Jeff Wenger Correspondents Ian Blazina, Josephine Bridges, Pamela Ellgen, Maileen Hamto, Edward J. Han, A.P. 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Please include a contact name, address, and phone number on all correspondence. Thank you. O Two other people who challenged the n March 28, 1942, just three months after opening his law practice in Portland, unconstitutionality of the internment of Japanese 25-year-old Minoru Yasui decided to Americans during World War II and re-opened their become a test case to challenge the curfew imposed cases in the early 1980s were Gordon Hirabayashi on persons of Japanese ancestry at the start of and Fred Korematsu. Both were awarded the World War II. He went up to a policeman after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Min’s daughter, curfew and demanded to be arrested for breaking Holly Yasui, an author and artist, is the co-chair of the curfew he thought unconstitutional. He then the Minoru Yasui Tribute Committee, which has been working with Hawai’i spent nine months in the senator Mazie Hirono to Multnomah County jail in nominate Min for the 2015 a 6’ x 8’ windowless cell Presidential Medal of awaiting his appeal to the Freedom, an honor usually U.S. Supreme Court. awarded in the fall. If Yasui was convicted and sentenced, and later sent bestowed, the president would complete the to Minidoka internment camp in Idaho until he recognition of three petitioners in Japanese- moved to Denver, Colorado where his mother and American coram nobis Pictured is Minoru Yasui in 1945 (left) and in 1983 (right). sister lived. cases (a legal writ issued by a court to correct a previous After the war ended, (Photos courtesy of the Yasui family) Min Yasui spent the rest of his life not only challenging the forced removal and incarceration of the more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II, but fighting for civil rights for all disenfranchised Americans. In the 1970s and ’80s, he was instrumental in the creation of a congressional commission that heard testimony about and eventually recommended reparations for all Japanese who had been imprisoned in the camps. He also helped establish many civil-rights organizations in the Denver area — groups such as the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL); the Urban League; Denver Native Americans United; and the Latino American Research, Advocacy, and Service Agency. Min was named as one of the five great lawyers in Colorado’s history. Yasui died on November 12, 1986, while in the process of appealing the lack of an evidentiary hearing regarding the test case. Oregonian Peggy Nagae served as his lead attorney in the proceedings. His legacy and accomplishments live on. On May 7, 2015, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) honored the legacy of Minoru Yasui with its “Voices of Change” award, an honor that will now be given annually in Yasui’s name. His younger brother, Homer Yasui, who currently lives in Portland, accepted the award on Min’s behalf. Homer spent his teenage years at Tule Lake internment camp and became a respected surgeon. The Yasui family was not only one of the earliest merchants in Hood River, Oregon, but a prominent, respected family. error to those who were convicted and served sentences). Holly has been working on a second play about Min. The first one, Unvanquished, created in 1993, covered her father’s test case. The new play, Citizen Min, details the nine-month period her father spent in the Portland jail awaiting his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Excerpts of the play, by dramaturg Nikki Nojima- Louis (of Breaking the Silence), will be performed at 6:00pm on Wednesday, July 29 at the Jade/APANO Multicultural Space, located at 8114 S.E. Division Street in Portland. A panel discussion led by community leaders follows the presentation. Chisao Hata, the director of the event, which is hosted by MediaRites’ Theatre Diaspora, has titled the event, “Never Give Up!” Inspired by the title, Holly is also working on a short film called Never Give Up! The Story of Minoru Yasui. Narrated by George Takei, the film will be released in 2016 on the 100-year anniversary of her father’s birth. The Minoru Yasui Tribute Project is also planning multiple events and celebrations next year. “I’m a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of what Min Yasui accomplished in his life,” Holly said when asked about her father’s legacy. “The influence he had on people who worked with him; his passion and commitment.” Holly also said the totality of who Min was and what he did can be summed up with a passage attributed to Bertolt Brecht, which is loosely Continued on page 7 Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.
