Dr. James Hirabayashi, Pioneering Ethnic Studies Scholar, Dies at 85

Dr. James Hirabayashi, Pioneering Ethnic Studies Scholar, Dies at 85: An ethnic studies pioneer whose scholarly family is closely connected to the U.S. internment camps of World War II has died—although not before he had produced yet another book on the subject.

In fact, Dr. James Hirabayashi, a San Francisco State University professor emeritus who died in late May at age 85, collaborated on the book with his son, Dr. Lane Hirabayashi.

Forthcoming by the University of Washington Press, the book contains wartime diaries and letters written by James’ older brother, Dr. Gordon Hirabayashi, a sociologist who became famous for defying the government’s mass incarceration of people of Japanese descent. Lane Hirabayashi holds the George and Sakaye Aratani Professorship in Japanese American Redress, Internment and Community at the University of California, Los Angeles.