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Chapter 5: The Coram Nobis Cases
Chapter 5 addresses the legal dimensions of redress for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. It starts by examining in detail the
coram nobis litigation of the mid-1980s that reopened the infamous Korematsu, Hirabayashi and Yasui cases of the 1940s. We incorporated in the text rich documentary material, much of which is reproduced in its
original form, to aid the study of lawyering strategy and judicial decisionmaking in the coram nobis cases.
Chapter 6: Reparation
Chapter 6 explores other attempted legal avenues of redress, including the
Hohri class action damages litigation and the federally enacted Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which authorized a Presidential apology and monetary
reparations. These materials include two judicial opinions relating to the claims for compensatory damages in the Hohri case; President Ford’s original order
rescinding Executive Order 9066 as well as the text of President George H.W. Bush’s apology to Japanese American internees; the findings of the
Congressional Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilian’s (CWRIC) report regarding reparations; and finally the entire text of the 1988
Civil Liberties Act passed into law by the 100th Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
In light of the Japanese American redress movement, other redress claims are also explored, including those made by Native Americans, Japanese Latin
Americans, African Americans, Native Hawaiians, South Africans and Korean sex slaves.
Chapter 7: Race, Rights and Liberty: Contemporary Issues
This final chapter and its accompanying study modules focus on contemporary legal issues illuminated by the Japanese American internment and redress
experience. Examples include the government’s treatment of political dissidents, Haitian “boat people”, Arab Americans and Dr. Wen Ho Lee. It is
designed to follow, and extend, students’ in-depth study of the original and coram nobis internment cases. More specifically it is designed encourage
students to draw upon their insights from that study to examine other post-World War II controversies in the U.S that implicate a collision between national security concerns and civil liberties.
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