3 - Coordinate

Summary

As the internment unfolded, numerous prominent Americans actively tried to combat it. Religious and civic groups, from the Quakers to the Fair Play Committee, independently strove to aid those within the camps. Returning from house arrest in Tokyo, the American Ambassador to Japan toured the United States in an effort to soften hatred toward the Japanese. A high-placed intelligence official and expert on Japanese Americans anonymously published an article with a similar objective. Two Japanese Americans, Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu, resisted the evacuation through the courts. All of these efforts, however, were uncoordinated, and the President’s order remained in place. This chapter traces the disparate measures that Americans pursued to undo a grave injustice.