Legal cases/coram nobis cases

Coram nobis cases refer to the 1980s attempt to reverse the World War II-era convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu and Minoru Yasui, who challenged the constitutionality of the curfew and exclusion orders. The Supreme Court had upheld their convictions on the basis of military necessity. In the early 1980s, researcher Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig and legal historian Peter Irons discovered declassified documents verifying that the government had withheld information showing that there was no military necessity in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Soon after, legal teams were assembled and identical coram nobis petitions were filed in three separate federal district courts on behalf of Hirabayashi, Korematsu, and Yasui. All three wartime convictions were subsequently vacated.

Redress and reparations (954)
Legal cases/coram nobis cases (204)

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204 items

vh Dale Minami Interview Segment 29 (ddr-densho-1000-141-29)

Recalling a telephone conversation in which Dale "crossed swords" with Min Yasui

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-141-29/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 14 (ddr-densho-1000-127-14)

Volunteering to testify before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians; assembling legal team, contacting Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Min Yasui

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-14/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 19 (ddr-densho-1000-127-19)

Facing resistance and hostility from the government's attorney, Victor Stone

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-19/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 15 (ddr-densho-1000-127-15)

Discussing merits of using coram nobis as basis for reopening cases

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-15/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 24 (ddr-densho-1000-127-24)

Gordon Hirabayashi's conviction is vacated in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, decision is made to not take the case to the Supreme Court

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-24/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 13 (ddr-densho-1000-127-13)

Making the decision to pursue reopening the Korematsu, Hirabayashi, and Yasui cases through coram nobis

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-13/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 12 (ddr-densho-1000-127-12)

Discovering the "smoking gun": evidence of government misconduct in the "internment cases"

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-12/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 21 (ddr-densho-1000-127-21)

Judge Patel vacates Fred Korematsu's forty-year-old conviction; reaction to Judge Patel's opinion: "I just felt overjoyed at what had happened"

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-21/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 20 (ddr-densho-1000-127-20)

An emotional hearing: Fred Korematsu makes a "powerful" statement in court

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-20/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 23 (ddr-densho-1000-127-23)

Gordon Hirabayashi's case in Seattle federal court, "a partial victory"

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-23/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 25 (ddr-densho-1000-127-25)

Legacy of the coram nobis cases and the incarceration: "the internment ... affected everybody in the country because it was done by the American government."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-25/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 5 (ddr-densho-1000-127-5)

Attitude regarding legal profession, "...use the system to people's benefit..."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-5/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 16 (ddr-densho-1000-127-16)

Initial meeting of the legal team: "One thing that impressed me was how well-organized everybody was"

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-16/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 17 (ddr-densho-1000-127-17)

Dealing with various issues, e.g. redress movement, Japanese American Citizens League, publicity, information leaks

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-17/

vh Peter Irons Interview II Segment 18 (ddr-densho-1000-127-18)

Filing petition for writ of error coram nobis, assigned Judge Marilyn Hall Patel

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-127-18/

vh Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig Segment 7 (ddr-densho-1000-16-7)

Uncovering the past, locating the "tenth copy" of the original Final Report

This interview was conducted at the Voices of Japanese American Redress Conference, held on the UCLA campus and sponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research. Because of the full conference schedule, our interviews …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-16-7/

vh Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig Segment 8 (ddr-densho-1000-16-8)

Description of the "tenth copy" of the original Final Report

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-16-8/

vh Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig Segment 6 (ddr-densho-1000-16-6)

Importance of the coram nobis cases to redress

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1000-16-6/