Sei Fujii


Sei Fujii was a human rights activist for Japanese-American individuals. He also established a California daily newspaper in 1931.

Life

Sei Fujii was born in Shūtō, Japan. After dropping out of Yamaguchi High School in the old system, he moved to the United States in 1903. He studied law at the University of Southern California and graduated from USC Gould School of Law. However, he was unable to get a lawyer's license because of a law that prohibited citizenship for those who were a member of "Mongolian race" and without citizenship he was unable to acquire a law license. After that, he started to fight against discrimination for Japanese immigrants with his friend J. Marion Wright, a lawyer in California. In 1928, the Supreme Court permitted Japanese-Americans to establish hospitals in Los Angeles.
In 1942, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Fujii was arrested by the FBI and imprisoned at the Tuna Canyon Detention Station. He was then sent to an Immigration and Naturalization detention camp in Santa Fe, New Mexico and, later, an Army internment facility in Lordsburg, New Mexico. Fujii was not released until 1946.
Several years after the war ended, the California Alien Land Law of 1913 was struck down, giving Japanese immigrants the ability to purchase land. In 1952, the law limiting citizenship was judged unconstitutional, and Fujii was finally able to acquire his citizenship at the age of 73. "He died by heart attack 51 days later," according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Lil Tokyo Reporter"

In 2012, the narrative short film "Lil Tokyo Reporter," an independent film about the activities and advocacy of Fujii in the fight for Japanese-American human rights, was produced in the USA. The film was exhibited at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and won more than 18 awards in various parts of the USA. It was directed by Jeffrey Gee Chin, a Chinese-American, and starred Japanese-American Actor Chris Tashima as Fujii.

Law license after his death

In 2017, California's top court decided unanimously to grant him a law license 63 years after his death. According to the lawyer in the case, there are only a few cases of individuals being granted law licenses posthumously; the Los Angeles Times reported a similar case involving a Chinese immigrant.