Illegal Japanese American Incarceration: A Conversation
The Japanese American Incarceration Was Illegal: A Conversation with Peter Irons and David Loy: Peter Irons, UCSD Legal Scholar & Professor Emeritus of Political Science, and David Loy, ACLU San Diego legal director, will talk about the U.S. government's incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. In the 1940s, Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minoru Yasui had been convicted for violating Executive Order 9066, which had ordered Japanese Americans into incarceration camps during the war, and challenged the constitutionality of that wartime order. In the 1980s, Dr. Irons uncovered documents proving that government officials had intentionally suppressed and altered evidence in lawsuits challenging the incarceration orders, a discovery that led to the reopening of the cases against Korematsu, Hirabayashi, and Yasui, and a reversal of their convictions. This event will be held in the Shiley Suite.