After leading the NCJAR's class action suit against the federal government, which was dismissed, Hohri's advocacy helped convince Congress to pass legislation that provided compensation to each surviving internee.
[1] Under the terms of Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942 and later upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States, Hohri was sent to Manzanar, a War Relocation Authority camp in the remote Owens Valley area of California, together with the rest of his family.
[3][4] Hohri's activism began in civil rights marches and anti-war demonstrations during the 1960s and 1970s, and in 1977 he helped obtain a pardon for Iva Toguri D'Aquino, the falsely accused "Tokyo Rose.
"[3] Calling the U.S. government's actions "consistent with the general pattern of discrimination already established" on a de facto basis before the war, Hohri became active in efforts to obtain compensation for those who had been interned and an official apology for the policy.
As head of the National Council for Japanese American Redress, Hohri was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that sought $27 billion in damages for the class of individuals held in the internment camps, but the case was ultimately unsuccessful.