Enduring Conviction - long!
I attended a presentation at the law school at Seattle University on Thursday, November 19, 2015. It was for a new book, Enduring Conviction by Lorraine Bannai. They called her 'Laurie". A professor at Seattle U., she was on Koromatsu's legal team that got his conviction overturned. The other two speakers: Patel (judge who overturned the conviction) and Karen Koromatsu (Fred's daughter)
http://www.amazon.com/Enduring-Conviction-Korematsu-Justice-American/dp/0295995157/ref=sr_1_1
The judge said when she got the case by lottery (they spun a wheel) she wasn't sure her court was the right court. The writ was so unusual that she had to look it up to make sure it really did apply. The Government tried various strategies, one was fairly bizarre, they tried to argue they wouldn't prosecute the case so there was no 'error' and no harm so no foul. It works as an argument for why there isn't a court case when prosecution is dropping charges before a conviction, not at all when the conviction was already obtained - of course the prosecutor isn't prosecuting the case anymore - it's over and prosecution won. Other arguments were around procedure and whether evidence was hearsay.
During Q&A, someone noted to Bannai that at the same time redress movement was underway, did she worry that if she lost the case, it would set the redress movement back? She said it never occurred to her. She was young. The case seemed so solid - it wasn't information they found elsewhere, it was the government's own legal team saying if we don't disclose this, we will be suppressing evidence, the case would be thrown out. One example was at one point General DeWitt's report contradicted the government's case. DeWitt is the racist General who said the very fact that no act of sabotage had occurred was disturbing and confirming evidence it would occur. So the report was re-written to remove conflicts and then the government destroyed all copies of the original report.
You might have heard about the Virginia mayor who thinks the Japanese American internment was a great idea.
George Takei's response
http://boingboing.net/2015/11/19/virginia-mayor-says-japanese-a.html
Karen Koromatsu said apparently that mayor in Virginia evidently hadn't heard that Virginia earlier this year made January 30th Fred Koromatsu Day - in perpetuity. The work of the institute to educate people continues.
http://korematsuinstitute.org/category/fred-korematsu-day-2/
Other notes
It was easy to get to from the museum, I found parking on 14th and Columbia which was far enough to get out of the "until 8 zone", put me in the '2 hour parking until 6 pm' zone. Parking spots around me were gone when I returned before 7 PM. Walked by a police car in the two blocks from campus to car. Drove by another police car on the way home. Wondered what the police presence was around Seattle University vs CID. Didn't check the classroom capacity (downstairs, 'C5') but it was standing room in back. Ballpark, a decent crowd for the museum theatre space. Wouldn't fill it though, classroom the seats are more spread out. Diverse crowd, some elder Japanese who were interned as children, law students, judges (one local, at least 2 from South America), asian, white, black. The event was taped but I neglected to ask whether/where there was access to the recording.
Not many questions from the audience but it worked out, what the moderator did was not have to moderate, she let people answer/talk as much as they wanted.
Afterwards, reception. Wagu beef sliders. Spring rolls. Something with vegan sausage. Generous chicken skewers. People loaded up their black plastic plates (nice sturdy ones). There was a very brief remark, 2-3 minutes thanking the speakers and basically telling Bannai, you're a credit to the school, you go girl!
Hardback was selling for list, $35. I was cheap and decided if I do get it, buy it from Amazon for $25. In retrospect, I should've paid the $35 and gotten all 3 speakers to sign it to Mom. Doh.
::: Michael Kan :::
11/20/2015
