Dale Minami

William Hohri brilliant, uncompromising, and totally dedicated to the idea that the United States should pay for its disgraceful treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  We travelled on parallel paths toward Redress and our paths crossed many times.  While we employed the coram nobis petitions to overturn the convictions of the 3 men whose Supreme Court cases in 1943 and 1944 justified the imprisonment, William and his group went directly at the United States government for monetary relief.  It was a movement of pure rebellious genius and influenced the course of our cases and the legislation that eventually resulted in Redress.  He did not suffer fools lightly nor folks who criticized his vision but that single-minded determination gave our community and our nation a gift of strengthening our civil rights.