Coram Nobis and the Continuum of Activism

              National Japanese American Historical Society
L-r: Min Yasui, Peggy Nagae, Don Tamaki, unidentified, and Dale
Minami hard at work at the Asian Law Caucus offices in San
Francisco, 1983. Courtesy of Peggy Nagae.
civil rights issues. However, none of
the federal judges in Oregon was
known as a civil rights liberal.
The hearing on Jan. 16, 1984 got off
to a bad start when Belloni asked,
"Now what's this case about?" Nagae
says, "It was clear to me that he had not
read our briefs. He was inundated by
the Dalkon Shield case in Eugene at the
time - a heavy-duty case with lots of
attorneys and big dollars."
Victor Stone employed a different
strategy than that used in San
Francisco. He agreed that the conviction should be vacated. However, since
Yasui had suffered no lasting consequences, he claimed, there was no "case
or controversy." There was no need for
a hearing, and the petition should be
dismissed. Nagae and Willner argued
that the court had a duty to "protect
the public interest" by examining the
constitutional aspects of the petition.
Belloni's opinion on Jan. 26 stated
"The two requests reach the same result, the only difference being that the
petitioner asks me to make findings of
governmental misconduct... I decline
to make such findings forty years after
the events took place... both sides are
asking for the same relief but for different reasons. Petitioner would have
the court engage in factfinding which
would have not legal
consequences. Courts
should not engage in
that kind of activity."
Nagae comments, "I
think Judge Belloni did
what was expedient.
There was a world of difference between and
Judge Voorhees (on
Hirabayashi). Voorhees
had read all the Magic
Cables, he was schooled
and knowledgeable. It
made a difference if people
understood the historical significance
of what we were doing, instead of just
viewing it as a case to get off their
docket."
The Yasui team hired Clayton
Patrick, who had extensive appellate
experience, to help file an appeal. The
case bogged down in technicalities
about whether the case was a civil or
criminal matter, and whether the appeal had been filed in time. Before the
appellate court could review his case,
Min Yasui died. Fukumoto sighs, "That
was a sadness. But the case needed to
go forward because that was what Min
was all about, he really was a dedicated
fighter. We were determined not to let
his death stop our efforts." Nagae adds,
"It was a big, big loss. I remember
speaking at his funeral and then going
to work on the brief because the government immediately made a motion
to dismiss. We fought it to the Supreme
Court and then just got one line from
them saying the case was moot."
The Seattle Team: "Families
- spouses and children -
everybody made sacrifices so
we could work on the case!"
- Craig Kobayashi
The initial lead counsel on the
Hirabayashi case was Kathryn Bannai,
Lorraine's sister. The Bannai's involvement was a natural outgrowth of their
upbringing. Growing up in Gardena,
CA, they watched their father, Paul
Bannai, evolve in public service - from
emcee at local community functions to
Gardena City Councilman to the first
Japanese Americans state assemblyman in California. In 1981, he was
appointed the first director of CWRIC.
Kathryn recalls, "When I was finishing high school, my father advised me
that if I wanted a career that would
benefit the community, I should become a lawyer." She graduated from
law school in 1977. By 1981, she was
president of the Seattle JACL, with a
community-based law practice in
Seattle's International District.
"In Seattle there was already a
groundswell of activism around redress. For many years, Nisei leaders like
Chuck Kato, Cherry Kinoshita,
Shosuke Sasaki and Henry Miyatake
had advocated for direct payment of
redress to individuals. These pioneers
created a climate of support for the
lawsuit. Reopening Gordon's case
dovetailed with the broader political
and social effort."
At the time, Bannai shared law
offices with three other sole practitioners: Rod Kawakami, Roger Shimizu
and Mike Leong. She soon got them
interested in the case.
"At first we thought the Seattle team
would have a fairly limited role. When
the cases were not consolidated, we
started calling up Sansei, other Asian
Pacific Americans and anyone who was
sympathetic. The work just had to get
done. I'd call people and say, 'Can you
give us an evening?' - even one evening
would help. There were documents to
Than All Of US (cont'd next page)
► Spring 1999    19