Robert W. O’Brien, former director of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council and speaking on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, testified before the CWRIC about the unfinished work of justice.

• Student Relocation Efforts: During WWII, O’Brien helped relocate Japanese American students from camps to colleges across the country. He recalled that the presidents of major universities—including Stanford, UC, and Washington—petitioned the government to support students’ education with federal funds. None was ever provided.

• On the Supreme Court: He argued that the wartime rulings upholding incarceration (Korematsu, Hirabayashi, Yasui) must be overturned. Until they are reversed, he warned, “any minority under inflamed public opinion runs the danger of losing its constitutional rights.”

• Critique of Language: O’Brien rejected euphemisms like “evacuation” and “evacuee,” calling them dishonest. He insisted on terms that revealed the true injustice of exclusion and incarceration.

• Historical Myths: He challenged the assumption that “all Caucasians supported internment,” pointing to Seattle’s Tolan Committee hearings where many white attorneys, professors, clergy, and citizens testified against exclusion.

• On “Never Again”: O’Brien pressed Japanese Americans to reflect on what the slogan truly means. He believed the younger Sansei generation, already forging alliances with Black, Latino, and Asian American movements, had built the community’s strongest ties yet to wider America.

• Looking Forward: He placed hope in youth and allies to ensure constitutional rights are protected, and urged that the Supreme Court be given a chance to rectify its “outrageous” wartime errors.