Gordon Hirabayashi. Criminal Case #45738 U.S. v. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, dated 1942.
Many well-known U.S. District Court cases at the National Archives at Seattle pertain to Japanese (Nisei) draft resisters during the time of incarceration. Many cases from multiple courts relate to conscientious objectors during World War II or others trying to combat legal restrictions placed on those with Japanese ancestry. This record is a filing from one notable case, U.S. v. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, USDC, Western District of Washington, Northern Division, Criminal Case #45738.
In 1942, Gordon Hirabayashi was a University of Washington student who deliberately violated the curfew provision of Public Proclamation No. 3 issued by the Military Commander of the Western Defense Command. He turned himself into the FBI with the purpose to prove in court that the exclusion order was unconstitutional. He was convicted, appealed, and eventually the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction. Case #45738 includes testimony from his parents who were brought from the relocation camp at Tule Lake, CA, where they were incarcerated.
The National Archives at Seattle also holds a McNeil Island Penitentiary Inmate Registration entry for Hirabayashi dated December 28, 1944, and his second case (U.S. v Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, USDC, Western District Court, Northern Division, Civil Case # 83-122) that took place 43 years later when Judge Donald Voorhees of the Western District of Washington reversed the 1942 Hirabayashi conviction after a full hearing in Seattle on the issue of government misconduct.
Criminal Case #45738 U.S. v. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, dated 1942. National Archives Identifier: 332827318
View and download Case #45738, U.S. v. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi on the National Archives Catalog. This record is one example of the many criminal case files held at the National Archives at Seattle, WA. You can explore more records held at the National Archives at Seattle through the National Archives Catalog or by visiting the National Archives at Seattle. This record is located within Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, Series: Criminal Case Files, 1926–2003. Many of the records in this collection have yet to be digitized. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held at the National Archives at Seattle.