Gordon Hirabayashi, a senior at the University of Washington in 1942, questioned the US treatment of the Japanese Americans after the bombing of pearl harbor that created fear and prejudice against Asian Americans. As an act of protest, Hirabayashi turned himself into the FBI rather than reporting to the camps. He was indicted for violating Civilian Exclusion Order Number 57 and served time at the Catalina Federal Honor Camp in Santa Catalina Mountain near Tucson AZ. 

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The political Imagery captures the concept of loss of Hirabayashi’s identity as a Japanese American, and his fight against the U.S government. The first element that captures the eye on the page, is the yellow statement of Hirabayashi’s notes containing his argument during the court case against the US. He questions the treatment of the Japanese Americans and how the false rumors led to the incarceration of innocent people. In his notes, he references the 5th amendment and the rights of an American citizen “person shall….be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” to argue that the US is contradicting their own

 

constitutional rights against Japanese Americans. The sporadic overlaps, displacements and hidden parts of his face represent America’s attempt of erasing his identity as he grapples with what he has left of himself for the sake of other Japanese Americans. The map that overcasts parts of Hirabayashi’s right face represent the incarceration camp zones documented in different years. As the elements move through the page, his FBI records and prison records can be seen as well.