Frank Chuman facts for kids

Frank Fujio Chuman (born April 29, 1917) is a Japanese-American lawyer and writer. He worked on many important cases about civil rights for Japanese Americans. He also helped with a movement to get justice for people who were treated unfairly during World War II.

Early Life and Education

Frank Fujio Chuman was born on April 29, 1917, in Montecito, California. His parents had moved to the U.S. from Japan. He was the middle child of three.

Frank went to Los Angeles High School and finished at the top of his class in 1934. He then went to UCLA and graduated in 1938. In 1940, he started law school at the University of Southern California.

Life During World War II

In 1942, a special order called Executive Order 9066 was given. This order forced many Japanese Americans, including Frank and his family, to leave their homes. They were sent to a special camp called Manzanar. Frank had to stop his law studies because of this.

While at Manzanar, Frank worked as the main manager at the camp's hospital. In 1943, he was allowed to leave Manzanar. He continued his law studies at the University of Toledo and then at the University of Maryland. He was the first Asian American law student at the University of Maryland.

Frank earned his law degree in 1945. At the University of Maryland, he learned about a special legal tool called a writ of error coram nobis. This legal order helps to correct serious mistakes in past court decisions. This tool would become very important in his later work.

Working for Justice

In 1945, Frank Chuman went back to Los Angeles. He worked for a law firm that helped the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). The JACL is an organization that works for the rights of Japanese Americans. Frank helped prepare legal papers for important cases like Oyama v. California and Takahashi v. Fish & Game Commission. These cases challenged unfair laws against Japanese Americans.

In 1947, Frank started his own law partnership with John Aiso. He worked there until 1954.

Leading the JACL

Frank became the president of the Los Angeles JACL chapter in 1946. He also gave legal advice to the national JACL group from 1953 to 1960. From 1960 to 1962, he was the national president of the JACL.

As president, Frank helped start the Japanese American Research Project (JARP). He also helped raise money for it. His work with JARP led him to study the history of Japanese American laws in the United States. This included laws about citizenship, immigration limits, and rules about who could own land. He also studied the reasons for the wartime confinement.

Frank wrote a book about his findings in 1976 called "The Bamboo People." In this book, he explained why certain laws were made and who supported them.

Civil Rights and Redress

In the 1960s, Frank became involved in the civil rights movement. This movement worked for equal rights for all people. He was named a commissioner for the Los Angeles County Human Relations commission. This group worked to improve relationships between different groups of people.

Starting in the 1970s, Frank worked hard for the Japanese American redress efforts. This was a movement to get an apology and payments for the unfair treatment during World War II. He also worked to overturn the court decisions against people like Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minoru Yasui. These individuals had challenged the wartime orders and were wrongly judged.

Years before, Frank had thought about using the writ of coram nobis to help overturn these old rulings. He suggested using this legal tool during his testimony in 1981 to a special group called the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC). Soon after, a scholar named Peter Irons and a lawyer named Dale Minami started a coram nobis petition for these cases. Frank joined their legal team as an adviser. Their efforts led to the federal courts overturning the unfair decisions.

Later Years

After the year 2000, Frank Chuman and his wife, Donna, moved to Thailand. In 2005, he received a special award from the University of Maryland School of Law. In 2011, he published his own story in a book called "Manzanar and Beyond." In 2021, when he was 104 years old, Frank received an honorary degree from the University of Southern California (USC).