Hold these Truths by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Lisa Rothe and featuring Joel de La Fuente in a stellar one-man performance, shows up the unique strengths of theater. This play’s mix of fact and fiction depicts Gordon Hirabayashi’s principled stand against racist WW II policies that led to the internment of Japanese-Americans. The artistic choice of having a single actor enact Hirabayashi telling his story to us quietly demonstrates—as no amount of documentary footage can—just how lonely such a stand can be.
Hold these Truths is a fitting title for this play because it poses fundamental legal questions: Are the words of the American Bill of Rights and Constitution really meant? Are they meant for all citizens or just European-American citizens? If we all take them seriously, who is responsible for interpreting them and also for making sure they are upheld? And what are we to do when the government, the institution to which these rights and principles applies, shows more interest in violating them than in upholding them? Sound timely?
With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US military eventually forced through a remarkably facilitative Roosevelt administration policies for the mass internment of Japanese citizens. A couple of cabinet secretaries opposed it, but never loudly, forcibly, or directly enough to encourage the president to stop the policy. The stripping of freedom happens by degrees. The internments were the last step, the first step was curfews for Japanese immigrants and citizens. Hirabayashi was a student at UW, and one night as he was racing to be in before the curfew, he passed an American flag, and wondered why he, a citizen, was being singled out of all the citizens, and foreign students attending the UW. He turned around and went back to studying in the library, thus violating the curfew law. He also became a conscientious objector (CO) to the war machine by refusing to enlist in the Japanese-American Army battalion.
His parents didn’t support him, believing that complying with the evacuation orders showed their “loyalty” to the US. The ACLU at first said it would support his case, then withdrew so as to not oppose the military during a time of war, then returned when the case reached the Supreme Court. The Court ruled against him and two other Nisei (second generation Japanese citizens). Four decades later, after records found in the military archives showed that the wartime policies against the Japanese were fueled more by racism than a material threat, Hirabayashi got another chance in court. This time, justice was better served as his original convictions were overturned by the US Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Six months after his death, Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Hirabayashi’s actions show the confluence of two powerful streams: one of personally interpreting important texts and another one of standing up to unjust policies. One foot stood on the shoulders of the early Quakers (or Friends as they call themselves) who suffered persecution because they felt each believer could have a direct connection with God without the intervention of priests or ministers, and another foot on the shoulders of the Quakers who stood against slavery, Henry David Thoreau, the suffragettes, and the COs in both major wars.
This show premiered in 2007 in Los Angeles, and this is the first full production in Seattle. This is ironic as much of the play happens in Seattle’s federal courts or on the University of Washington campus. A standing room only audience, which includes almost two dozen members of Hirabayashi’s extended family, gave a deserved standing ovation.
Hold these Truths, by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Lisa Rothe and featuring Joel de La Fuente. Central Heating Lab at ACT Theatre. 700 Union St. Visit ACT Theatre website for additional events. Fri & Sat at 7:30 PM, Sunday at 2 PM. Tickets acttheatre.org or 206 292.7676. Closes August 3.