Attorney Florelee Wan participated in a “Reenactment of the Minori Yasui Trial”.

Attorney Florelee Wan participated in a “Reenactment of the Minori Yasui Trial” at the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, NJ on Friday, May 24, 2013.

In honor of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, APALA-NJ and the Honorable David Bauman, P.S.J.C. presented a “Reenactment of the Minori Yasui Trial” for the Administrative Office of the Courts on Friday, May 24, 2013  at the Hughes Justice Complex  in Trenton, NJ.

The presentation was dramatic reenactment of the 1942 trial of Japanese-American lawyer Minoru Yasui. Within hours of a nighttime curfew imposition on “all persons of Japanese ancestry,” Yasui began walking the streets of Portland, Oregon, intent on challenging the legality of the military orders. He walked for three hours and finally went to a police station, where he demanded to be arrested. He was indicted for violating the curfew and prosecuted in federal court. Yasui was the first of four Japanese-American resistors to come before the United States Supreme Court to challenge the World War II military orders that led to the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans.