A Principled Stand

Reviews / Votes

"Hirbayashi's . . . struggle and case have been analyzed every which way-but one. It has not been, until A Principled Stand, The Story of Hirabayashi v. United States, that readers have had access to Hirabayashi's reflections at the time of his resistance."

- Peter Monaghan (The Chronicle of Higher Education) "A long-awaited and richly satisfying memoir that emerges from a dark place in Northwest history. . . . The book puts you there, as a good novel does."

- Mike Dillon (City Living) "A fascinating look into the inner workings of how one man, with the support of his Christian supporters, took on the U.S. government and ultimately won."

- Martha Nakagawa (Rafu Shimpo) "The book successfully reminds us of the struggles needed to secure our freedoms today."

(Publishers Weekly) "A Principled Stand proves that boxes of paper hauled from home to home and stored in closets and garages can eventually become the meat of history. . . . A valuable book, highly recommended."

- Paula Becker (HistoryLink.org) "[T]he authors succeed in one of their main goals: letting people get to know Gordon the person, not merely Gordon the plaintiff in a noted legal case. . . .A Principled Stand should be added to the growing number of quality, firsthand accounts of that era."

- Troy Reeves (Oral History Review) "What a treat it is to spend a few hours with three of the finest minds that have ever addressed Japanese American history....[in this] memoir constructed out of the World War II diaries of Gordon Hirabayashi and other documents."

- Paul Spickard (Oregon Historical Quarterly) "A Principled Stand is more than the story of an important wartime incarceration case; it is also the story of a remarkable person...a must read not only for scholars of Asian American history but also for those interested in the relationship between faith and social justice. The book has lessons for us all."

- Stephanie Bangarth (Pacific Historical Review)