| Chapter 3: The Internment Cases
We now turn to the heart of the book: the actual experience of
internment. Chapter 3 covers the legal dimensions of the internment
decision, with attention to the equal protection jurisprudence
introduced in Part I. It also brings the national security law element
into the analysis. Organized both chronologically and conceptually,
the early curfew cases form a stepping stone to the later exclusion
case and finally to the case squarely confronting the legality of
detention. The
“Overview: From Pearl Harbor to the Assembly Centers” provides a brief
chronology of the congressional, presidential and military decisions
leading to the internment. It also introduces key players, including
government officials responsible for these decisions as well as the
ordinary individuals dramatically affected by them. The
chapter then takes up the four “internment cases” decided by the U.S.
Supreme Court—Hirabayashi, Yasui, Korematsu, and Endo. Each of these
cases is preceded by a brief biography of the individuals who resisted
the internment through legal means. Chapter 4: The Internment Camps
Chapter 4 describes the experience that lies at the heart of the
injustice visited upon Americans of Japanese descent. The chapter
raises fundamental questions of what it means to be American, to be
Asian American, to be a loyal citizen or alien in wartime and to
disagree with one’s country at the same time one professes loyalty. It
is a key bridge to Part III of the book, for one cannot discuss whether
reparations are appropriate without discussing the actual injury
inflicted. | 
