Friday, February 19th program summary:  the coram nobis cases

Prior to the traditional Saturday afternoon Day of Remembrance programsd on 2/20/99, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) and the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations co-sponsored a Friday evening program entitled “Resistance Then and Now, Coram Nobis Panel.”  JANM brought together plaintiffs Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Yuka Fujikura, sister of the deceased plaintiff Min Yasui.  Professor Peter Irons joined them for a first-hand recounting of the landmark coram nobis cases. 

In 1981 Peter Irons began researching U.S. government documents from World War II.  To his surprise the archives pointed to the U.S. government’s suppression of evidence and deliberate lying to the Supreme Court in the Korematsu, Hirabayashi and Yasui cases.  In 1983, at the urging of Peter Irons, Korematsu, Hirabayashi and Yasui challenged their World War II wartime convictions by filing petitions for writ of error coram nobis (“error before us”).  The courts vacated Korematsu and Hirabayashi’s convictions.  Unfortunately Min Yasui passed away before the court decided his case.

Glen Kitayama, JANM curator, moderated the program.  NCRR president Richard Katsuda noted the panelists’ courage and determination and presented each of them an engraved acrylic plaque of appreciation from NCRR.