Today Google's US homepage is celebrating Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu, civil rights activist and survivor of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. In 1942, at the age of 23, he refused to go to the government's incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government's order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.
In 1983, Prof. Peter Irons, a legal historian, together with researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, discovered key documents that government intelligence agencies had hidden from the Supreme Court in 1944. The documents consistently showed that Japanese Americans had committed no acts of treason to justify mass incarceration. With this new evidence, a pro-bono legal team that included the Asian Law Caucus re-opened Korematsu's 40-year-old case on the basis of government misconduct. On November 10, 1983, Korematsu's conviction was overturned in a federal court in San Francisco.
After 9/11, Korematsu continued to speak out. In 2003, he filed a "Friend of the Court" amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court for two cases appealed before the Supreme Court of the United States, on behalf of Muslim inmates being held at Guantanamo Bay: Shafiq Rasul, v. George W. Bush and Khaled A.F. Al Odah v. United States of America. In the brief, he warned that the government's extreme national security measures were reminiscent of the past. In 2004, he filed a similar brief on behalf of an American Muslim man being held in solitary confinement in a U.S. military prison without a trial.
His life is a reminder that what is legal isn't always the same as what's right: "In 1942, Korematsu was one of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent who were forced to leave their homes and most of their worldly possessions under Executive Order No. 9066. The effort was later considered a low point in U.S. history, a moment where fear overwhelmed tolerance."
Fred Korematsu Day: "In 2010, the Governor of California signed the legislative bill establishing Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on January 30 in perpetuity. Since 2010 Hawaii, Virginia and Florida have also established a day of recognition in honor of Fred Korematsu's fight for justice and the importance of upholding our civil liberties and the Constitution."
What Happens When Kids LIVE Civics?: "We studied the US Supreme Court Case Korematsu v. United States. The students could not believe they had never been taught about the case before. They were even more surprised that the majority of adults they asked about the case had never heard of Fred Korematsu. I decided to have students write to Sen. Jack Latvala and Rep. Chris Latvala asking for a day of remembrance for Fred Korematsu in the state of Florida. The students were so excited to spread the word about Mr. Korematsu and were amazed that they were "allowed" to write to Sen. Latvala and Rep. Latvala. Students were invited to attend the "Meet Your Legislator" session and one of them read her letter to Sen. Latvala. That evening Sen. Latvala informed us that he was going to write a resolution in the Florida Senate for January 30th to be known as Fred Korematsu Day."
Previously on Fred Korematsu:
R.I.P., Fred Korematsu
Previously on the Japanese-American internment:
The Forgotten Internment
Never forget, never again
A deliberate, knowing lie.
...and other valuable posts earlier in Metafilter history.