Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Lorraine Bannai Interview
Narrator: Lorraine Bannai
Interviewers: Margaret Chon (primary), Alice Ito (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: March 23 & 24, 2000
Densho ID: denshovh-blorraine-01-0038

LB: Certainly I think it's had a tremendous impact on my life and my career. I started working on this case when I was one or two years fresh out of law school. Many people would call this the case of a lifetime, and to have that quote, "case of a lifetime" as soon as you get out of law school is really pretty amazing. It taught me so many things that have served me on a regular basis. It certainly taught me about how politics relates to the law, and how inextricably linked political decisions are from legal decisions. It gave me a perspective on the law that I think I bring to my work constantly, that there's a relationship between law, politics, economics, social structures, prejudice. The law embodies everything that exists in society. It is not a separate entity, and that again, the law is an elastic entity to the extent that it can and should be used as a tool to effectuate social change. Certainly the case gave me that perspective. In other words, kind of a critical view of the law rather than just an accepting view of the law.

It was a powerful lesson to see that this was not viewed as a Japanese American issue. It was viewed as an American issue. It was viewed as an issue for Jews, for blacks, for Hispanics, for any group that might suffer a similar fate or could suffer a similar fate. It resonated with people as a Constitutional civil rights issue rather than a special interest issue.

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