A play about Japanese American civil rights pioneer Gordon Hirabayashi and produced by Hawaii Five-O’s Daniel Dae Kim opened this week in Hawaii.
The one man play “Hold These Truths” stars Joel de la Fuente who previously performed Truths off Broadway in New York .
“To me there is nothing like it, and especially for a story like this one,” Kim said to the Star Advertiser.
“We are talking about a man, ultimately. We are not talking about a fictitious character. And it lends to the storytelling when you actually have a person speaking to you, in front of you, and I think this is one of the reasons this production is unique.”
“Hold These Truths” is the story of Hirabayashi, who challenged the incarceration of Japanese Americans in U.S. courts, but lost. The verdict was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 after evidence surfaced that the Federal government had suppressed evidence in the case.
“He wasn’t the kind of guy who was looking for a fight,” de la Fuente said. “He just felt he had to take a stand.”
De la Fuente performs 37 different characters on stage. You can read about the challenges he faced in this article in the Star Advertiser