This exhibit explores Japanese internment during World War II, the career of Oregon Law graduate Minoru Yasui, and the importance of social justice lawyering in addressing and redressing the failures of democracy.

Born in Hood River, Oregon, Minoru Yasui (1916–86) earned both an undergraduate degree and a law degree at the University of Oregon. Yasui was one of four Japanese Americans who fought the legality of exclusion zones, curfews, and internment during World War II all the way to the Supreme Court. His case was the first to test the constitutionality of the curfews targeted at minority groups.

The United States Supreme Court affirmed Yasui’s conviction for breaking curfew. After being interned during most of World War II, he moved to Denver, Colorado in 1944, where he had a long and distinguished career with the city's Community Relations Commission. In 1986, his criminal conviction was overturned in federal court.

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