In 1942, Minoru Yasui deliberately defied the curfew imposed upon Japanese Americans in Portland, Oregon, and was arrested. His case was tried, and he was sentenced to one year in prison and given a $5000 fine. The appeal eventually reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that the government did have the authority to restrict the lives of civilian citizens during wartime. In the 1980s, his case was reopened under writ of error coram nobis, and in 1986 his conviction was overturned by the Oregon federal court. In this clip, Minoru describes the day he was intentionally arrested.

This clip is an excerpt from Minoru Yasui's Densho oral history interview conducted October 23, 1983, by Steven Okazaki for his 1984 documentary Unfinished Business. To see the complete interview segment, visit the Densho Digital Repository (http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1012-3-5/).