Fred Korematsu
Fred Korematsu |
Mr. Fred Korematsu, Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, accepted our invitation and addressed an Elderhostel at the Lenna Theater in the Chautauqua Institution on September 26, 2002.
He was accompanied by Mr. Eric Fournier who showed his Emmy Award winning 1999 documentary film "Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story". Mr. Fournier won two Emmy awards on September 10, 2002, for directing and editing this film.
A panel discussion followed the screening of Mr. Fournier's film. Other panelists were Kathryn Korematsu, who is Fred's wife, Mr. Fournier and John Q. Barrett, Esq., our Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow and St. John's University Professor of Law.
The film presents the story of this legendary man whose legal case, Korematsu v. United States, challenging the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, was decided against him by the Supreme Court in 1944.
Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote a famous dissenting opinion in that case. This case continues to be of vital significance today as national officials, judges and citizens struggle to define, in the context of our war on global terrorism, the scope of government power to control individual freedom. Justice Jackson's historic dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United States is published at 323 U.S. 214, 242-48.
A Brief History of Fred Korematsu
It has been more than 50 years since Mr. Korematsu began his courageous fight against injustice. Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland, California of Japanese ancestry, and was a graduate of Oakland High School. By 1942 he had tried twice to enlist in the army but was turned down for a physical disability. He was ordered to one of the internment camps during World War Two, at the age of 22. He refused to go quietly and was arrested in May 1942.
Korematsu was tried in a federal district court and was joined in his fight by Ernest Besig, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California. Besig had read about Korematsu in a local paper and offered the assistance of the ACLU in the ensuing legal battle. Korematsu challenged the internment order as it applied to him, a loyal citizen of the United States, but he was found guilty of knowingly violating the Civilian Exclusion Order. He was confined in a relocation center in Utah while he appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court. Korematsu lost his case in a highly-charged legal opinion that upheld his conviction.
But the impact of the case on the civil rights movement was considerable, and almost 40 years later, the case was reopened. In 1983, Korematsu won a reversal of his conviction. A federal court in San Francisco overturned the conviction, stating that the government's case at the time had been based on false, misleading, and at racially biased information.
In January 1998, Fred Korematsu was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the country's highest civilian award - at a White House ceremony. The Executive Order issued during World War II resulted in the incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent. Fred Korematsu's heroic stand against this injustice demonstrates the importance of individual conscience, courage, and action.
Mr. Korematsu passed away on March 30, 2005. He was 86 years old. Click here to read his obituary.