Federal Bureau of Prisons

No Japanese American was ever charged and convicted of sabotage or spying during World War II. However, over a hundred Japanese Americans who sought to challenge the internment were convicted and sentenced to terms in federal prisons. These cases, highlighted in recent research (see, for example, work by Abe n.d.; Erickson 1998a, 1998b; Uyeda 1993), belie the perception that the Japanese American community passively accepted the relocation and internment. Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, and Fred Korematsu challenged the government’s actions in court. Minoru Yasui had volunteered for military service after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was rejected because