Join acclaimed actor Greg Watanabe and the San Francisco Japanese American Citizens League (SFJACL) for a stirring rendition of Jeanne Sakata‘s World War II internment play, Hold These Truths, at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. Sakata’s play tells the true story of a courageous Japanese American, Gordon Hirabayashi, who challenged the U.S. government’s orders during WWII to confine Japanese Americans in internment camps because of the American conflict with Japan.

Hirabayashi was a student at the University of Washington, when he defied U.S. internment orders and challenged them in court on the basis of racial discrimination and civil rights violations. He refused to obey curfews, register at processing centers, or report to internment camps. He was arrested and jailed for his actions, however, his legal case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fresh from his Broadway debut in George Takei’s Allegiance musical, Watanabe presents a dramatic reading full of humor, hope, and heartbreak of Hold These Truths.