Gordon Hirabayashi dies
Quaker human rights activist dies aged 93
A Quaker who spent decades fighting for human rights has died in the USA. Gordon Hirabayashi was described as a ‘civil rights icon’ by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). He was 93.
Along with other US residents of Japanese descent, he faced internment after the US entered the second world war. He refused to co-operate with the law and was imprisoned for over two years.
He told the FBI that he had to maintain his ‘Christian principles’ in the face of attempts to evacuate people because of their ethnic descent.
When out of prison, Gordon Hirabayashi worked with the American Friends Service Committee to support other individuals and families affected by internment. Over four decades later, in 1987, a federal court overturned his 1943 conviction for failing to register for evacuation and ignoring a curfew.
