Chin ’75 discusses landmark internment trial

With Denny Chin ’75 narrating, 13 students celebrated Constitution Day on Thursday afternoon by reenacting the historic 1942 trial of Minoru Yasu, who intentionally violated a curfew imposed upon Japanese-Americans during World War II.

As students read their parts, a screen in the background projected images from the Japanese internment camps, eliciting sympathetic reactions from a roughly 50-person audience, which included around 15 students.

Chin, a federal judge who has presided over high profile cases such as the recent trial of Bernie Madoff, is the only Asian-American judge serving in the federal appellate court system. He returned to campus for the reenactment, which told a story of racial tension in national security policy that still resonates six decades later.

Chin said the issues surrounding the trial continue to “reverberate,” citing the tense period following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 1942, Yasui turned himself in to a police station after the 8 p.m. curfew, hoping for a trial to challenge the policy’s constitutionality. Born in Hood River, Ore., to Japanese immigrants, Yasui had studied at the University of Oregon and eventually became a lawyer. He was a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps in college and later earned commission as a second lieutenant.

Though a federal district court ruled that the curfew was unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court later overruled the decision, allowing the curfew to continue. Roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans were interned under the law.

History professor Hendrik Hartog, who is director of the Program in American Studies, called the trial a “shameful story of loyal Japanese internment” in his opening remarks. He highlighted the relevance of the trial in light of a proposed Arizona bill that would deny citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

Bassam Chain ’12, who played an FBI agent and judge, said in an interview after the reenactment that the trial “shows the importance of how law affects lives.”

During the question-and-answer session that followed the reenactment, audience members voiced emotional reactions to the performance.

One asked for another look at a cartoon displayed during the reenactment that depicted a Japanese man framed by the caption, “Wipe that sneer off his face. Buy war savings bonds & stamps.” Visible in one corner was Dr. Seuss’s signature.

When the audience member later expressed his frustration with the lack of human morality in law, Chin answered that “law is not always correct,” though he added, “I think the system works well in general.”

Another audience member, who grew up in Oregon near internment camps, said she felt a personal connection to the reenactment because many of her friends were targets of discrimination.

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“It still breaks my heart,” she said, describing how the situation forced many of her friends to take jobs picking crops despite their professional qualifications.

Chin’s presence at the event was well received by those participating. The son of working-class immigrants, Chin served as managing editor of The Daily Princetonian before graduating magna cum laude in 1975. He worked in both public and private law before being nominated to the federal court when he was just 39 years old.

“It was a really amazing experience to be able to participate with someone so passionate about his work,” Chain said.