SAN JOSE, California--As a superior court judge and a former prosecutor here, Johnny Gogo knows an injustice when he sees one. 

Although he has no ancestral ties to Japan, Gogo is ensuring that the shameful actions taken against Japanese-Americans during World War II are not forgotten.

Gogo, 53, has been collecting signatures of Japanese-Americans relocated to internment camps after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

To symbolize that the action was taken before Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959, Gogo has been having them sign an American flag with 48 stars, which was in use at the time. 

That flag was the one flying over the 10 internment camps across the West and Arkansas where about 120,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated.

It was also the flag that was carried into battle by U.S. military units comprised of Nikkei troops, including the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

In early October, Gogo set up a table in the Japantown neighborhood of San Jose.

Dozens of Japanese-Americans gathered around Gogo who asked them if they were ever in an internment camp and what memories they had of that experience.

Gogo began collecting signatures from March and has been seeking out those who were placed in internment camps or left those camps to join the all-Nikkei combat units during World War II.

Gogo developed an interest in the history of Japanese-Americans through a fellow judge, Roberta Hayashi, herself a Japanese-American.

From about seven years ago, Hayashi has been organizing events related to the late Fred Korematsu, a human rights activist who was arrested during World War II for refusing to be placed in an internment camp and fleeing.

Gogo learned about the internment camps as he took part in the events organized at Japantown by Hayashi. Gogo later met with Korematsu’s daughter and the lawyer who overturned the initial guilty verdict against Korematsu.

“I thought to myself, ‘How can I get more people involved? Especially the survivors from the camps,’” Gogo said.

HESITANCY AMONG FIRST SIGNER

The first person Gogo asked to sign the 48-star flag was Mike Honda, a former congressman who was also from San Jose.

A third-generation Japanese-American, Honda spent time at the Amache internment camp near Granada, Colorado.

Gogo felt that getting Honda’s signature would pave the way for gathering other signatures, considering his stature within the Japanese-American community.

But at first, Honda was wary, asking Gogo why he was collecting the signatures and also concerned that the act could be a desecration of the American flag.

Gogo explained that it would not be an act of desecration because the flag was being used to pay respect to those who were treated unjustly. Honda eventually agreed to sign.

Others who spent time at internment camps and who also added their signatures were Norman Mineta, the former transportation secretary, and the actor George Takei.

Gogo spent his weekends visiting various parts of California as well as Seattle and Honolulu to gather signatures.

As a judge himself, Gogo considered the history of the internment camps to be an issue that had to be taken seriously.

Prior to becoming a judge, Gogo worked for about 20 years as a local prosecutor in San Jose. In both positions, Gogo influenced whatever penalty a defendant received, including imprisonment.

Gogo believes that the rights of Japanese-Americans that were protected under the U.S. Constitution had been violated when they were placed in internment camps.

“The irony is because the United States needed more soldiers, they drafted some of the sons in the camps and sent them off to battle,” Gogo said. “But they were not going to let their families out of the prison. That's the injustice.”

FOCUS ON KOREMATSU VERDICT

The verdict against Korematsu came into the spotlight again in 2017 when then U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order limiting entry into the United States of nationals from six nations, mainly in the Middle East and Africa.

A number of state governments, including Hawaii, filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the order on grounds it discriminated based on citizenship.

But in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration.

The verdict touched upon the earlier judgment against Korematsu, who took his case to the Supreme Court, arguing for the injustice of the internment camps targeting Japanese-Americans.

The Supreme Court upheld in 1944 the guilty verdict of the lower court. It wasn't until 1983 that a U.S. district court found Korematsu not guilty in a retrial. However, the Supreme Court ruling was never overturned.

In an opinion written for the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, wording was included that said the 1944 ruling against Korematsu, “was gravely wrong the day it was decided, (and) has been overruled in the court of history.”

But because the Korematsu ruling itself was not overturned, Gogo is among those who fear that the precedent could be used as an excuse to hold Americans of Middle Eastern descent for reasons of national security, in the same way that Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

TAKING THE SIGNED FLAG AROUND THE U.S.

Gogo has his roots in Guam.

“A lot of people in the United States don't remember that Guam was also attacked on the same day that Pearl Harbor was attacked,” he said.

After the attack on Guam, Japan took over the island and renamed it Omiyajima. The U.S. military took back Guam in 1944, but only after about 20,000 people died in the fierce fighting.

Gogo’s father was born in Guam and joined the U.S. military. Gogo himself was born in Germany when his father was stationed there. Gogo never heard about the war from his grandparents who lived in Guam and he only developed an interest in the island’s history as an adult.

He read about how Guam residents were forced into labor by the Japanese military.

Gogo said that sadly the negative aspects of history, such as racial discrimination and ethnic violence, tend to repeat itself. He added that since every generation forgets its past, there was a need to pass on history to future generations.

Gogo’s plan is to donate the signed flags to museums around the United States.

The first will be donated to the Japanese American Museum of San Jose on Jan. 30, Korematsu’s birthday. The second flag will go to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, while the third will be donated to the Fred T. Korematsu Institute near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The fourth flag will be taken around the United States on a tour of universities.

Gogo at first thought he would fill one flag with signatures. However, the number has increased to four and he has collected more than 800 signatures.

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This story is the last of a four-part series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II on the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.