[3] Hirabayashi later spent a year in federal prison at McNeil Island Penitentiary for refusing induction into the armed forces, contending that a questionnaire sent to Japanese Americans demanding renunciation of allegiance to the emperor of Japan was racially discriminatory because other ethnic groups were not asked about adherence to foreign leaders.

[5] As a sociologist, he conducted studies of Jordan and the Doukhobors in British Columbia, Egyptian village political awareness, Jordanian social change, and Asian-Americans.

[8][9] Soon after retiring, Hirabayashi received a call from Peter Irons, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego.

These documents showed that the government knew in 1942 there was no military reason for the exclusion order but misrepresented and withheld that information from the United States Supreme Court.

[12][13][14] In 2008, the University of Washington awarded Hirabayashi and four hundred former students of Japanese ancestry who were evacuated from the school honorary degrees "nunc pro tunc" (retroactively).

[citation needed] On May 24, 2011, the U.S. Acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Gordon Hirabayashi, who in 1942 challenged a curfew imposed on persons of Japanese descent, was the keynote speaker for a program on June 4 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

[citation needed] His personal fight to defend constitutional rights in the face of wartime hysteria was described in detail in a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary about his court case.

Hirabayashi spoke of discrimination that confronted nearly all persons of Asian ancestry in the United States, in the decades leading up to World War II.

[21] On April 27, 2012, President Barack Obama announced that Hirabayashi would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his principled stand against Japanese-American internment.

[23] In 2007, the Asian American theatre company East West Players gave the world premiere of a stage play based on Hirabayashi's true life story.

As he fights to reconcile his country's betrayal with his Constitutional beliefs, Gordon journeys toward a greater understanding of America's triumphs and failures.

[25] The Los Angeles Times gave it a mixed review: "Ryun Yu plays Hirabayashi... but even his fine-grained tour de force doesn't negate the suspicion that another structure, another style might make this material more exciting.

The tour was produced by East West Players' Theatre For Youth program, directed again by Jessica Kubzansky, and starred actor Martin Yu,[27] who had been the understudy in the original 2007 full-length production.

[24] In 2010, East West Players' Theatre For Youth program produced another tour of Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi.

The show was well-received as indicated by the following review: "Kushi gave a one-man, tour-de-force performance that floored the audience..."[29] Southern California Edison was the major sponsor of this tour of Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi.

The tour visited the following California cities: Alhambra, Baldwin Park, East Rancho Dominguez, Fullerton, Gardena, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey Park, North Hollywood, Norwalk, Pasadena, Redlands, Reseda, San Bernardino, San Fernando, Van Nuys, and West Covina.

[32] In 2012, the play was renamed by its author as Hold These Truths, and prepared by the Epic Theatre Ensemble of New York City for presentation off-Broadway in prototype productions in March.

[34] People's Light and Theatre Company, in Malvern, Pennsylvania, staged the play in 2014 as part of its "Community Matters" series,[35] with de la Fuente.

[36] In 2016, Portland Center Stage presented Hold These Truths in the Ellen Bye Studio with Ryun Yu, who originated the role of Gordon Hirabayashi in the 2007 world premiere (under the title Dawn's Light) at East West Players in Los Angeles.