Lincoln Seiichi Kanai (1908–1982) was a social worker who was one of several

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

s to bring a legal challenge against the exclusion of people of Japanese ancestry from the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Kanai was born December 5, 1908, in the small town of Koloa in what was then the Territory of Hawaii. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1930, and in 1935, after his return from an extended trip to Japan, he began working for the Lihue, Kauai

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

. In 1937, Kanai moved to California to take a job at San Francisco's Buchanan Street YMCA, where he remained until the war. After the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

, Kanai testified before the Tolan Committee and corresponded with various political and military leaders, attempting to persuade them against the mass removal of Japanese Americans from California and quell the tide of anti-Japanese prejudice that had cost many Japanese Americans their jobs. His proposals to hold hearings to assess the loyalty of Japanese Americans instead of removing them en masse, and to allow students, the elderly and handicapped individuals to avoid incarceration went unheeded. When the Western Defense Command issued an order for the Japanese American residents of San Francisco to present themselves for "evacuation" on May 20, 1942, Kanai did not comply, instead remaining in the city and continuing his advocacy efforts. On June 1 he left the Bay Area to attend a series of conferences and meetings on the removal and confinement of West Coast Japanese, and on July 11 he was arrested by the FBI at a YMCA convention outside

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, for violating Public Law 503, which enforced the provisions of President Roosevelt's

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...

. Kanai's lawyers issued a writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

, arguing that the creation of the West Coast exclusion zone was unconstitutional, but the court denied the petition, citing the fact that Kanai had admitted to knowing he was violating the law when he left California. He was tried under Public Law 503 in San Francisco and, on August 27, sentenced to six months. He was "released" to the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming on February 6, 1943, two months early for good behavior. In October 1943, Kanai was granted leave to move to Milwaukee, where he took a job working with under-resourced boys. He moved to Battle Mountain, Michigan in 1950, where he remained until his death.

References

Kyna Herzinger
"Lincoln Seiichi Kanai / ex parte Kanai,"
''Densho Encyclopedia'' (accessed 25 July 2014). {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanai, Lincoln 1908 births 1982 deaths American social workers American civil rights activists of Japanese descent Japanese-American internees Internment of Japanese Americans People from Kauai University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni