Lillian Baker

Lillian Baker (Left) tries to grab Nisei veteran Jim Kawaminami’s (Right) testimony from his hands during the Los Angeles hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in August 1981.

Lillian Baker was a conservative author and lecturer She is known for supporting Japanese-American Internment throughout her career.

Biography

Lillian Baker was the widow of a World War II veteran. In the 1970s, Baker and others in California objected to the words "concentration camp" on a proposed state historical marker at the site of Manzanar. She opposed efforts to designate Manzanar a national historic site.

Baker downplayed the suffering of Japanese-American internees during the war. She justified Japanese-American Internment, and opposed the government to formally apologize to interned Japanese Americans, and pay reparations to Japanese-American internees. She wrote several books on the topic of Japanese-American internment.

Lilian Baker was a founder of the Americans for Historical Accuracy. She founded the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the International Club for the Collection of Hatpins and Hatpin Holders. In 1976, she was regional campaign manager for S.I. Hayakawa's U.S. Senate bid in California. Baker was awarded by the conservative Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

Baker died on Oct. 21, 1996 at her home in Gardena.

See also

• Michelle Malkin conservative blogger, political commentator, and author of In Defense of Internment, which defended Japanese American Internment, and the racial profiling of Arabs.