Fred and Mabel Ring were Seattle peace activists both before and after World War II. Their pacifist convictions, rooted in Christian beliefs, spurred them to reach out to Japanese American families who were incarcerated under Executive Order 9066. Most of these families they knew through their daughter Eleanor (Ellie), who had met many Japanese American friends as a student at the University of Washington, and as an active member of the University of Washington YMCA/YWCA. The Ring Family corresponded with several incarcerated families, providing support and small luxuries that were difficult to obtain in the camps.
Gordon Hirabayashi (1918-) was one of Ellie's YMCA/YWCA friends. Born in the Sand Point area of Seattle, he grew up on the farmland surrounding Kent. In Japan, both of Hirabayashi's parents had become members of Mukyokai, or the "non-church" movement. Teaching Christian principles free from denominational issues, Mukyokai stressed an uncompromising stand against social injustice. When he was a student at the University of Washington, Hirabayashi became a Quaker and a consciencious objector. Hirabayashi refused to comply with the curfew imposed on Japanese Americans in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and later refused to report for relocation to the internment camps on the grounds that the directives were based solely on race and therefore were unconstitutional.
After the last Japanese were forcibly removed from Seattle, Hirabayashi turned himself in to the FBI and was tried and convicted in the Federal District Court of Seattle. The case ultimately went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the curfew was constitutional. Hirabayashi was sentenced to serve three months in a minimum security prison in Arizona. No funds were available to transport him, so Hirabayashi spent two weeks hitchiking to get there. Later, he was tried and convicted of draft resistance and served nine months in the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island. When released Hirabayashi returned to the University of Washington and received BA, MA and PhD degrees in sociology. He then taught overseas at American University in Beirut, American University at Cairo, and he retired from the University of Alberta in 1983. In the 1980s Hirabayashi and his legal team brought new evidence to the courts of government misconduct regarding reasons for the exclusion order and was successful in getting his 1943 convictions overturned.
From the guide to the Ring Family Papers, ca. 1941-1985, 1942-1945, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections)
