Eric Yamamoto

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Eric Yamamoto
NationalityAmerican
OccupationLaw Professor/Scholar
Years active1975–present
Known forScholarship In Racial Justice: Racial Reconciliation & Redress

Eric Yamamoto (publishing as Eric K. Yamamoto), the Korematsu Professor of Law and Social Justice [1] at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, is an internationally recognized [2] expert on issues of racial justice, including racial reconciliation and redress. [3] [4] [5] [6] Flowing from the landmark 1944 Korematsu v. United States case, he is known for his work as a member of Fred Korematsu's 1983 legal team that succeeded in having Korematsu's original conviction overturned.

Contents

Background

After graduating from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1975, Yamamoto earned his Juris Doctor from the University of California Berkeley, School of Law in 1978. [7]

Advocacy

Yamamoto worked on Korematsu v. United States, a landmark United States Supreme Court case that challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066 during World War II which led to the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans from California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Territory of Alaska. [2] [8] [9] [10] As a member of Fred Korematsu's legal team, Yamamoto provided co-counsel for his 1983 coram nobis petition, successfully challenging the constitutionality of his conviction for resisting internment, [11] resulting in Korematsu's original conviction being overturned. [2]

Scholarship

Among his other writings, Yamamoto is the award-winning [12] author and coauthor of two books:

As well as the sole author of one book about the Korematsu case:

Awards

In 2012, the Consortium of Asian-American Law Professors created a national award in Yamamoto's name, "The Professor Eric Y. Yamamoto Emerging Scholar Award," in recognition of his "exemplary scholarship in racial justice and inspiration to emerging scholars." [16] [17] The award is to be granted annually to a United States law professor that is early in career who demonstrates outstanding promise. [17]

In 2006, the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) awarded Yamamoto its national "Great Teacher Award," awarded annually, in recognition of both his "teaching of social justice" and for "expanding access to justice." [2] [18]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internment of Japanese Americans</span> World War II mass incarceration in the US

During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), mostly in the western interior of the country. Approximately two-thirds of the detainees were United States citizens. These actions were initiated by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, following Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Before the war, about 127,000 Japanese Americans lived in the continental United States, of which about 112,000 lived on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei and Sansei. The rest were Issei immigrants born in Japan, who were ineligible for citizenship. In Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised more than one-third of the territory's population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were incarcerated.

Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that upheld the internment of Japanese Americans from the West Coast Military Area during World War II. The decision has been widely criticized, with some scholars describing it as "an odious and discredited artifact of popular bigotry", and as "a stain on American jurisprudence". The case is often cited as one of the worst Supreme Court decisions of all time. Chief Justice John Roberts repudiated the Korematsu decision in his majority opinion in the 2018 case of Trump v. Hawaii.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa</span> Public university in Hawaii, US

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is a public land-grant research university in Mānoa, a neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offices of the system. Most of the campus occupies the eastern half of the mouth of Mānoa Valley, with the John A. Burns School of Medicine located adjacent to the Kakaʻako Waterfront Park.

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The William S. Richardson School of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Located in Honolulu, Hawaii, the school is named after its patriarch, former Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice William S. Richardson, a zealous advocate of Hawaiian culture, and is Hawaii's only law school.

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Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was an American civil rights activist who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy launched its attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast from their homes and their mandatory imprisonment in incarceration camps, but Korematsu instead challenged the orders and became a fugitive.

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References

  1. "Law School Professor Eric Yamamoto Awarded Fred. T. Korematsu Professorship". University of Hawaiʻi News. April 17, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kamisugi, Keith (12 November 2009). "Eric Yamamoto, University of Hawaii Law Professor, Honored For Outstanding Contributions To Justice". Equal Justice Society. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  3. Carbado, Devon. "The Law and Economics of Critical Race Theory" (PDF). The Law and Economic of Critical Race Theory. Yale Law Journal. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 29, 2006. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  4. Kriefels, Susan (May 4, 1998). "The Attorney General Is Asked To Investigate The Destruction of Religious Shrines By Developers". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  5. Brophy, Alfred. "The Utility and Disadvantages of Reparations". DePaul Law Review. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  6. Headley, Clevis (September 14, 2011). "Reparations, Hermeneutical Injustice and Disciplinary Decadence: On the Limits of Political Philosophy" (PDF). University of West Indies. Retrieved March 27, 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. "Professor Eric Yamamoto". William S. Richardson School of Law. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  8. Walters, Heidi (January 26, 2012). "Dissent Remembered". North Coast Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  9. Chow, Andrew. "Landmark APA Legal Team Demands Commissioner's Ouster". Asian Week. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  10. "School of Law Marks Launch of Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality". Seattle University. April 18, 2011. Archived from the original on June 9, 2010. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  11. "Korematsu's Legal Team". Korematsu Institute. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  12. "UH Professor's Book Wins National Award". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. December 26, 2000. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  13. Yamamoto, Eric (2000). Interracial Justice: Conflict and Reconciliation in Post-Civil Rights America (Critical America Series). NYU Press. p. 352. ISBN   0814796966.
  14. Yamamoto, Eric K.; Chon, Margaret; Izumi, Carol L.; Kang, Jerry; Wu, Frank H. (2001). Race, Rights, and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment . Gaithersburg: Aspen Publishers, Inc. ISBN   0-7355-2393-2 . Retrieved 2022-08-23 via Internet Archive.
  15. Yamamoto, Eric K. (2018). In the Shadow of Korematsu . New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780190878955 . Retrieved 2022-08-23 via Google Books.
  16. Matsushima, Tracy (February 1, 2012). "National Award Named For UH Professor". University of Hawaii. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  17. 1 2 "Hawaii Law Professor Recognized By National Group". Victoria Advocate. February 12, 2012. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  18. "Teacher of the Year Award". Society of American Law Teachers. Archived from the original on August 27, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2012.