KOREMATSU, HIRABAYASHI, YASUI & ENDO DFEENDER OF LIBERTY AWARD PRESENTATONS

REMARKS OF BRUCE FEIN

THE COMMITTEE FOR THE REPUBLIC

METROPOLITAN CLUB, WASHINGTON, D.C.

KOREMATSU, HIRABAYASHI, YASUI & ENDO

DFEENDER OF LIBERTY AWARD PRESENTATONS

OCTOBER 16, 2019

                ATHENS HAD SOCRATES.

                KING HERNRY VIII HAD SIR THOMAS MORE.

                AND WE HAVE THE MOUNT RUSHMORE OF MORAL COURAGE TO HONOR THIS EVENING:  FRED KOREMATSU, GORDON HIRABAYAHSI, MINORU YASUI, AND MITSUYE ENDO.  THEY ARE LARGELY UNKOWN AMERICAN HEROES AND HEROINES OF WORLD WAR II.  IT CAN BE SAID WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, SELDOM IN THE ANNALS OF LIBERTY HAVE SO MANY OWED SO MUCH TO SO FEW.

                WHAT IS MORE AMERICAN THAN FIDELITY TO THOMAS JEFFERSON’S INJUNCTION THAT RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD?

                OUR DEFENDER OF LIBERTY AWARD RECIPIENTS RESISTED THE RACIST TRYANNY OF PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT’S EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 ISSUED UNILATERALLY WITHOUT CONGRESS ON FEBRUARY 19, 1942, A DATE THAT SHOULD LIVE IN INFAMY.   PROVOKED BY RACISM IN THEN WEST COAST BATTLEGROUND STATES, EO 9066 SUMMARILY DISPATCHED 120,000 INNOCENT JAPANESE AMERICANS BECAUSE OF THEIR ANCESTRY ALONE INTO INTERNMENT CAMPS.  REMEMBER THEIR NAMES.  FOR THEY ARE FIRST COUSINS OF BERGEN-BELSON, BUCHENWALD, DACHAU, AND SACHSENHAUSEN, NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS, NOT EXTERMINATION CAMPS LIKE AUSCHWITZ.  ROOSEVELT’S CAMPS WERE TEN:  MANZANAR (CA), POSTON (AZ), GILA RIVER (AZ), TOPAZ (UT), GRANADA (CO), HEART MOUNTAIN (WY), MINIDOKA (ID), TULE LAKE (CA), JEROME, (AR), AND ROHWER (AR).

                RISKING OSTRACISM OR WORSE, OUR FOUR AWARD WINNERS CHALLENGED THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S RACISM.  THE PRESDIENT AND HIS MANDARIN CLASS COLLEAGUES ECHOED THE ORWELLIAN BUGLE OF GENERAL JOHN DEWITT 80 DAYS AFTER PEARL HARBOR: “THE VERY FACT THAT NO SABOTAGE HAS TAKEN PLACE TO DATE IS A DISTURBING AND CONFIRMING INDICATION THAT SUCH ACTION WILL BE TAKEN.”  I AM REMINDED OF MARK ANTHONY’S MOCKIKNG FUNERAL ORATION IN JULIUS CEASAR:  BUT PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WAS AN HONORALBLE MAN, SO WERE HIS ASSISTANTS ALL HONORABLE MEN.

                KOREMATSU, HIRABAYASHI, YASUI, AND ENDO TOOK THEIR CASES TO THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT WITH MIXED SUCCESS.  THE HIGH COURT SUSTAINED FDR’S EXECUTIVE ORDER BASED ON KNOWING LIES ABOUT MILITARY NECESSITY MADE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.  DISSENTING JUSTICE ROBERT JACKSON PRECIENTLY WARNED THAT THE COURT’S DECISION IN KOREMATSU V. UNITED STATES WOULD LIE AROUND LIKE A LOADED WEAPON READY FOR USE BY A FUTURE CALIGULA, CLAUDIUS, OR NERO IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHO CLAIMED AN URGENT NEED.

                BUT THE FOUR DID NOT SURRENDER.  THEY CONTINUED TO FIGHT OVER LONG DECADES FOR VINDICATION AND DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTION BOTH FOR THE LIVING AND THOSE YET TO BE BORN.  IN TRIUMPH, OUR DEFENDER OF LIBERTY AWARD HONOREES BRANDISHED THE LOFTY PRINCIPLES OF THE GREATEST GENERATION—THE CONSTITUTION’S ARCHITECTS—AGAINST ITS TRAITIORS. KOREMATSU AND HIRAYABAHSI HAD THEIR CONVICTIONS OVERTURNED IN CORAM NOBIS PROCEEDINGS.   THE CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT OF 1988 DENOUNCED THE RACISM AND UNCONSTITUTIONALIY OF E0 9066.   AND THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT OVERRULED KOREMATSU IN TRUMP V. HAWAII.

                DEFENDING LIBERTY IS ALWAYS UNFINISHED WORK.  TYRANNY KNOWS ONLY OFFENSE—LIKE A FOOTBALL TEAM WITH TOM BRADY PLAYING ALL POSITIONS.  WE CANNOT ESCAPE OUR MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AS AMERICAN CITIZENS TO EQUAL OR BETTER THE INSTRUCTION OF AMERICAN PATRIOTS KOREMATSU, HIRABAYASHI, YAUSI, AND ENDO.  IT IS FOR US, THE LIVING, TO ENSURE THAT THEIR COURAGE WAS NOT IN VAIN.  IT IS UNTHINKABLE THAT WE FAIL TO TRY.  GORDON HIRABAYASHI WAS RIGHT AT THE YOUNG AGE OF 24:  “IT IS OUR OBLIGATION TO SHOW FORTH OUR LIGHT IN TIMES OF DARKNESS, NAY, OUR PRIVILEGE.”

WHEN YOU AWAKEN EACH MORNING, BE HAUNTED BY EDWARD GIBBONS’ EPITAPH ON ATHENS:

“IN THE END, MORE THAN FREEDOM, THEY WANTED SECURITY.  THEY WANTED A COMFORTABLE LIFE, AND THEY LOST IT ALL—SECURITY, COMFORT, AND FREEDOM. WHEN THE ATHENIANS FINALLY WANTED NOT TO GIVE TO SOCIETY BUT FOR SOCIETYIT TO GIVE TO THEM, WHEN THE FREEDOM THEY WISHED FOR MOST WAS FREEDOM FROM RESPONSIBILITY THEN ATHENS CEASED TO BE FREE AND WAS NEVER FREE AGAIN.”

IT IS ALTOGEHTER FITTING THAT MY CLOSING LINES WILL BE DELIVERED AT THIS TIME AND PLACE WITHIN SHOUTING DISTANCE OF THE WHITE HOUSE TO THUNDER LIKE A HAMMER ON AN ANVIL.  IN  THE EYES OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, THERE IS ONLY ONE RACE, IT IS AMERICAN; THERE IS ONLY ONE RELIGION, IT IS AMERICAN; THERE IS ONLY ONE ANCESTRY, IT IS AMERICAN; THERE IS ONLY ONE GENDER, IT IS AMERICAN; THERE IS ONLY ONE SEXUAL ORIENTATION, IT IS AMERICAN.

E PLURIBUS UNUM.  OUT OF MANY, ONE.