Gordon Hirabayashi: The civil rights hero who hiked from Spokane to Tucson [Video]

SPOKANE, Wash. – April 23 is Gordon Hirabayashi’s birthday. The civil rights advocate fought against Japanese internment orders during World War II and had a long history in Spokane.

Hirabayashi was born in western Washington in 1918. He was deeply influenced by the Quaker spirituality of his family, particularly the dedication of Friends to Gospel-inspired social justice principles.

He attended University of Washington (UW) throughout the early 1940s. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, ordering Japanese Americans living on the west coast to be sent to concentration camps for the remainder of the war.

Order 9066 is widely regarded by legal scholars as one of the most dangerous and racist uses of executive power in modern American history.

Hirabayashi refused to report to a camp during his senior year at UW. He was arrested and arraigned in a King County court in June 1942 for failing to comply with the order.He pleaded not guilty and argued that the military demands for Japanese Americans …