Frank Abe is a third generation Japanese American whose father was incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. He received his B.A. in theater directing from the University of California, Santa Cruz and trained with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He was a founding member of the Asian American Theater Workshop in San Francisco and the Asian American Journalists Association in Seattle. He produced and directed the award-winning documentary “Conscience and the Constitution” about the largest resistance to the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
The National Council for Japanese American Redress was formed in 1979 and is best known for instituting a class action lawsuit against the United States government for damages due to wartime incarceration.
The United States Federal Government passed The Civil Liberties Act in 1988, offering a formal apology to those who were incarcerated and making payments of $20,000 in compensation to surviving victims.
[Sources: “Conscience and the Constitution” ,
“National Council for Japanese American Redress”,
Collection consists of ephemera collected by Frank Abe related to Japanese American redress for the forced expulsion and incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Mr. Abe produced and directed the award-winning documentary “Conscience and the Constitution”, chronicling resistance to the military draft by a group of young men incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Wyoming during World War II. The collection includes business cards, a flyer and viewer guide for “Conscience and the Constitution”, and printed materials related to Japanese American redress.
Materials are arranged in the order they were received.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item description]
Japanese American Redress Collection, 1976-2000 (Cage 5126)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Frank Abe donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in 2012 (MS.2012.17).
This collection was processed by Gayle O'Hara in 2019.
George and Frank C. Hirahara Photograph Collection of Heart Mountain, Wyoming, 1932-2016
Tom T. Hide Collection, 1925-2012
Okubara Family Collection, circa 1943-2008
Takeda Family Collection, 1938-circa 2012
Kenneth Nishiyori Collection, 1942-1944
George and Doris McIntyre Papers, 1944-1945
Mari Tsuruyama Okumura Collection, 1936-2014
Patti Hirahara Collection, 1955-2020
Terry Ishihara Collection, 1989-2012
Mike Mackey Collection, 1940-2002
Heart Mountain High School
Fusataro Nakaya Photographs, circa 1944
Nabata Family Collection of Heart Mountain Photographs, circa 1942-1945
Frank Chin Oral History Collection, 1974-1986
Inez Puckett McEwen Collection on Japanese-American Incarceration, 1942-1943
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.