He Refused Internment, Justice Refused Him American Vindicated 40 Years Later When Felony Overturned

When the government notices appeared in 1942 ordering 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes and into internment camps, Fred Korematsu refused to go.

Even though his family and other Japanese American friends urged him to comply with the order, he did what he felt was just.

“All of them turned their backs on me at that time because they thought I was a troublemaker,” he said last week. “(But) I thought what the military was doing was unconstitutional. I was really upset because I was branded as an enemy alien when I’m an American.”

Born and raised in Oakland, Korematsu was working as a welder in San Leandro when he was arrested for defying the federal exclusion order, then convicted of a felony and sent to an internment camp in Utah. Not until more than 40 years later was he vindicated, when a federal court overturned the conviction.

Now, 56 years later, the 78-year-old has been recognized for his remarkable courage with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“He personifies the best of the American dream,” said Phil Tajitsu Nash, professor of Asian American studies at the University of Maryland. “He’s the symbol of everything this country stands for - he’s hard-working, mild-mannered, supports the community and stands up for injustice.”

Korematsu, still living in San Leandro and still working part-time as a draftsman, said he was surprised and excited when he got the phone call from the White House three weeks ago.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Korematsu, whose parents immigrated from Japan and ran a plant nursery in east Oakland. “It’s quite an honor to receive this.”

Korematsu’s case not only inspired a generation of Japanese Americans but also resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision studied by law students to this day.

With the help of the ACLU, Korematsu fought his felony conviction, in which he was sentenced to five years’ probation, all the way to the nation’s highest court. In 1944, the court ruled against him.

“They decided that, in times of crisis, they had to defer to military judgment, in essence abdicating their responsibility and allowing the incarceration of an entire racial group based on their ancestry,” said San Francisco attorney Dale Minami. “It was symbolic of the legalization of discrimination in this country.”

He said the loss was a shameful burden to Korematsu, who refused to talk about it for four decades. But it was not forgotten.

“It was in the back of my mind for 40 years,” Korematsu said.

Then, in 1981, a Boston professor uncovered evidence that the government had lied in order to win the case, suppressing reports saying Japanese Americans were not a security threat to the country. Minami headed a team of Bay Area attorneys who successfully argued for vacating Korematsu’s conviction.

As a White House press release announcing the awards said: “Forty years later in 1983, a federal district court found the government’s exclusion and detention actions during the war were legally unsupportable and that the government’s defense of the actions was based on fraud and misconduct.”

The White House statement also credited Korematsu for his role in the Japanese American redress movement, which resulted in 1988 legislation mandating a national apology and reparations to interment camp survivors and their families.

“Through the process of over turning his conviction, and concomitant with the Japanese American redress movement, I feel our civil rights have been strengthened,” said Minami.