“Galvanizing… a lone citizen fighting government corruption”

“Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths has been around since 2007, but you can understand why Arena would revisit Hirabayashi’s history now. Hysteria and wholesale racism — ‘No Japs’ signs were features of the American landscape even before the war broke out — are balanced against the principles of the nation’s founding documents, and the argument made its way to the Supreme Court. Hirabayashi lost, but the government rigged the case. Forty years later the verdict was reversed… Hirabayashi’s social justice crusade is ultimately galvanizing... the internment policy makes the systemic injustice impossible to ignore, and Hirabayashi becomes a lone citizen fighting government corruption in an increasingly dark saga."

The Washington Post
Nelson Pressley