Japanese Canadian Incarceration
January 14, 1942 marked the beginning of a seven-year exile for Japanese Canadians. More than 27,000 people were removed, incarcerated, and barred from returning home until 1949.
Law & Justice
Mamie Tape
On January 9, 1885, the California Supreme Court ruled that denying Mamie Tape admission to public school because she was Chinese violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The law was clear. California’s response was not.
Kakurō Shigenaga
On January 7, 1942, authorities arrested Kakurō Shigenaga by mistake. They were looking for his brother. When they realized the error, they arrested the brother too — and kept them both.
Dalip Singh Saund
Dalip Singh Saund was a California farmer by necessity, not choice. In 1957, he became the first Asian American, first Indian American, and only Sikh elected to the U.S. Congress, after decades of exclusion from citizenship and opportunity.
The War Brides Act of 1945
After WWII, Japanese war brides married American servicemen, but U.S. immigration laws barred them. Love crossed borders. Law did not.
Endo-Korematsu Paradox
On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that the government couldn’t detain loyal Japanese Americans. Hours later, it upheld a conviction for refusing to comply with that same system. It was a contradiction — the Endo-Korematsu Paradox.
Wayne Collins
Wayne Collins spent decades defending Japanese Americans’ civil rights. Born on November 23, 1899, he fought cases from Korematsu to the Tule Lake renunciants, restored citizenship to thousands, and challenged the government’s wartime abuses. His work helped protect the Constitution when few others would.
Yamashita v. Hinkle
Takuji Yamashita fought racism in Washington’s courts long before WWII. His 1922 case, Yamashita v. Hinkle, exposed how the Alien Land Laws targeted Japanese immigrants.
Proposition 15 (1946)
California voters rejected Proposition 15 on November 15, 1946, marking the first time the state voted down an anti-Asian law and shifting the civil rights landscape.