Fred Korematsu: Resisting Japanese American Internment
Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu (January 30, 1919 – March 30, 2005) was an American civil rights activist who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. He challenged Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast, and his case became a landmark Supreme Court decision that was later reconsidered decades after his death.
Early Life and Education
Korematsu was born in Oakland, California, on January 30, 1919, the third of four sons to Japanese parents Kakusaburo Korematsu and Kotsui Aoki, who had immigrated to the United States in 1905. He attended public schools in Oakland and participated in the Castlemont High School tennis and swim teams. From childhood, he worked in his family’s flower nursery in San Leandro, California, and encountered racial discrimination early—a U.S. Army recruiting officer refused to accept his enlistment flyers, telling him “We have orders not to accept you.” His girlfriend Ida Boitano’s Italian parents also objected to their relationship on racial grounds.
Career and Achievements
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Korematsu trained to become a welder to contribute to the defense effort. He worked briefly at a shipyard but was removed when his coworkers discovered his Japanese descent. A second welding job ended after one week when his supervisor returned and found him working there. Following Pearl Harbor, he lost all employment due to his ancestry.
When called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, the U.S. Navy formally rejected him citing stomach ulcers, though it is believed the true reason was his Japanese descent. On May 3, 1942, General John L. DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report for removal to internment camps. Korematsu refused the order and went into hiding in the Oakland area.
Notable Events and Milestones
On March 27, 1942, General DeWitt prohibited Japanese Americans from leaving Military Area No. 1 in preparation for evacuation. Korematsu underwent plastic surgery on his eyelids in an unsuccessful attempt to pass as Caucasian and changed his name to Clyde Sarah, claiming Spanish and Hawaiian heritage. He was arrested on May 30, 1942, on a street corner in San Leandro and held in a San Francisco jail.
Ernest Besig, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in northern California, asked Korematsu to use his case to challenge the legality of internment. Korematsu agreed, and attorney Wayne M. Collins was assigned to represent him. The national ACLU opposed the case, as many high-ranking members were close to President Roosevelt and feared negative publicity during wartime, but Besig proceeded anyway. Korematsu was tried and convicted on September 8, 1942, for violating Public Law No. 503, which criminalized violations of military orders under Executive Order 9066. He was placed on five years’ probation and sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center, then to the Central Utah War Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah.
The Supreme Court upheld the legality of Roosevelt’s order in Korematsu v. United States (1944). However, four decades later, Korematsu’s conviction was overturned in U.S. District Court after the disclosure of new evidence challenging the necessity of internment—evidence that had been withheld from the courts by the U.S. government during the war. In 2018, Korematsu’s case was discussed in Trump v. Hawaii, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that “The forcible relocation of U.S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of Presidential authority.” Legal scholars debate whether this statement actually overturned Korematsu or was merely a disapproving dictum.
Awards and Honors
“Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” was first observed on January 30, 2011, by the state of California on what would have been his 92nd birthday, marking the first such commemoration for an Asian American in the United States. In 2015, Virginia became the second state to permanently recognize January 30 as Fred Korematsu Day. The Fred T. Korematsu Institute was founded in 2009 to carry on his legacy as a civil rights advocate and to educate communities about civil liberties.
Additional Resources
Korematsu’s life and legal struggle remain central to American civil rights history. More detailed information about his case, the internment era, and his later vindication is available through Wikipedia, the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, and various historical archives documenting Japanese American internment and constitutional law.
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