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<\/a>Jomar Tagatac as Gordon Hirabayashi. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.<\/p><\/div>\n
Gordon Hirabayashi grew up in Washington state as a nisei, a second-generation Japanese-American.\u00a0 Although imbued with reverence for the United States Constitution, his \u201caha\u201d moment comes upon his initial case before the United States Supreme Court, realizing then the painful contradiction between the Constitution as a most laudable political contract and those who were appointed to uphold it.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Manzanar Relocation Center. Gordon Hirabayashi’s family was interned shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p><\/div>\n
Playwright Jeanne Takata\u2019s one-man, biographical drama \u201cHold These Truths\u201d beautifully captures Hirabayashi\u2019s courage and sacrifice in challenging President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s 1942 Executive Order 9066, which consigned Japanese-Americans, including those who were American citizens, to internment camps during World War II.\u00a0 This act displaced human beings based strictly upon race, forcing them to virtually give away businesses, property, and personal possessions.<\/p>\n
Unlike any other nation, American polity is anchored in the bedrock of a set of glorious documents that provides a guiding light for democracy.\u00a0 At conception, its Declaration of Independence embraced the radical notion that \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.\u201d\u00a0 And at its birthing, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution observes that the first objective of the American people is \u201cto form a more perfect union,\u201d conceding the new nation\u2019s flaws at outset, but implying the quest of better welfare for its posterity.<\/p>\n
American democracy has largely improved with age but not without suffering setbacks.\u00a0 Egregious and systemic racism is at the core of many of our failures to live up to the grandiloquence of our ideals \u2013 slavery as an accepted practice at our inception; breaching of innumerable treaties and other agreements with Native American tribes;\u00a0 Jim Crow laws in the South to deny African-Americans their rights following the emancipation amendments; the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspending Chinese immigration; the rejection of Jewish refugees during World War II and in the face of the Holocaust; and the blatantly discriminatory voter suppression laws passed or currently proposed by Republicans in over 25 states that are designed to impair blacks\u2019 and other minorities\u2019 ability to exercise their most cherished democratic rights. \u00a0All of these horrific practices fomented by our elected leaders serve to generalize the specifics of this play concerning the Japanese Relocation Order.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Political cartoon inciting fear of Japanese-Americans.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cHold These Truths\u201d is a love letter from the playwright to Hirabayashi\u2019s memory.\u00a0 Seemingly an average kind of guy who is a little diffident and socially clumsy, Takata largely applies a light touch to his childhood and time as a student at the University of Washington.\u00a0\u00a0 Although Hirabayashi adheres to the cautions of Japanese geography in Seattle, meaning he knows to avoid walking certain blocks because of anti-Japanese signs and in which shops and cafes he won\u2019t receive service, he lives like a typical poor student.<\/p>\n
Inflamed by the wartime actions against Japanese-Americans by the government, but lacking any expertise or strategy, he rises to the occasion and defies the order, certain that he is protected by the Constitution.\u00a0\u00a0 Some droll incidents occur after he is found guilty.\u00a0 For reasons that won\u2019t be shared, he asks for a longer sentence than he is originally given, but is told that the court doesn\u2019t have the funds to transport him to an appropriate facility. So, he negotiates to wend his way to prison on his own recognizance!\u00a0 1,500 miles away!\u00a0 In Tucson, Arizona!<\/p>\n
The pace of \u201cHold These Truths\u201d is a bit pedestrian, yet it excels in storytelling.\u00a0 Surprisingly, a relatively small portion of it is dedicated to the reason that we care about Gordon Hirabayashi \u2013 the Supreme Court cases that challenged the unequal treatment of Japanese-Americans in World War II on the basis of race.\u00a0 Yet, the character is very involving, and the storyline holds the audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
A key element that makes the play work is the astounding tour-de-force performance of Jomar Tagatac, who conveys such genuineness and believability in the main role.\u00a0 The actor has become recognized as one of the great performers in the Bay Area, but he has been seen in plays with ensembles in which he constitutes part of a whole.\u00a0 Now he has proven beyond a doubt that he can single-handedly carry a one-hour-and-forty-five minute production with great conviction.<\/p>\n