Historical Profile: Fred T. Korematsu


Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu (January 30, 1919 – March 30, 2005) was a Japanese American civil rights leader.  Korematsu was convicted of evading internment during World War II when Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps.  Korematsu is known for petitioning against his internment.  In Korematsu v. United States the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of the government’s order to bring Korematsu and other Japanese Americans to internment camps.  Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the government to take people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast from their homes and place them into internment camps.  Korematsu challenged this order and eventually his case was brought before the Supreme Court.  Years after the conclusion of World War II, the U.S. government acknowledged the injustice of interning Japanese Americans.


In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation officially terminating Executive Order 9066.  Ford said: “We now know what we should have known then – not only was that evacuation wrong but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans.  On the battlefield and at home the names of Japanese-Americans have been and continue to be written in history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and to the security of this, our common Nation.”


In 1980, President Jimmy Carter commented on the causes of the Japanese internment camps saying: “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”


In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act which provided $20,000 to every surviving Japanese internment camp detainee.  The payment totaled $1.2 billion.


In 1998, when awarding Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Bill Clinton said: “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, Brown, Parks… to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”


On November 10, 1983, while testifying at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California, Korematsu said: “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.  If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people.”


Korematsu’s legacy for pursuing justice and fairness continues through several initiatives. 


* The Fred T. Korematsu Institute in San Francisco, California was founded in 2009.


* On September 23, 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that designates January 30th of every year as the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution in the state of California.


* Korematsu was the first Asian American to be featured in “The Struggle for Justice” – a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.


* Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story is an Emmy Award winning movie about Korematsu.

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