35 Facts About Fred Korematsu

Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy launched its attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast from their homes and their mandatory imprisonment in incarceration camps, but Korematsu instead challenged the orders and became a fugitive.

The legality of Roosevelt's order was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Korematsu v United States.

Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was born in Oakland, California, on January 30,1919, the third of four sons to Japanese parents Kakusaburo Korematsu and Kotsui Aoki, who immigrated to the United States in 1905.

Fred Korematsu resided continuously in Oakland from his birth until the time of his arrest.

Fred Korematsu attended public schools, participated in the Castlemont High School tennis and swim teams, and worked in his family's flower nursery in nearby San Leandro, California.

Fred Korematsu encountered racism in high school when a US Army recruiting officer was handing out recruiting flyers to Korematsu's non-Japanese friends.

When called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, Fred Korematsu was formally rejected by the US Navy due to stomach ulcers, but it is believed that he was actually rejected on the basis of his Japanese descent.

Fred Korematsu went in one day to find his timecard missing; his coworkers hastily explained to him that he was Japanese so therefore he was not allowed to work there.

Fred Korematsu then found a new job, but was fired after a week when his supervisor returned from an extended vacation to find him working there.

Fred Korematsu underwent plastic surgery on his eyelids in an unsuccessful attempt to pass as a Caucasian, changed his name to Clyde Sarah and claimed to be of Spanish and Hawaiian heritage.

When on May 3,1942, General DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report on May 9 to Assembly Centers as a prelude to being removed to the internment camps, Fred Korematsu refused and went into hiding in the Oakland area.

Fred Korematsu was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro on May 30,1942, and held at a jail in San Francisco.

Fred Korematsu felt that "people should have a fair trial and a chance to defend their loyalty at court in a democratic way, because in this situation, people were placed in imprisonment without any fair trial".

On June 12,1942, Fred Korematsu had his trial date and was given $5,000 bail.

When met by military police, Besig told Fred Korematsu to go with them.

Fred Korematsu was tried and convicted in federal court on September 8,1942, for a violation of Public Law No 503, which criminalized the violations of military orders issued under the authority of Executive Order 9066, and was placed on five years' probation.

Fred Korematsu was taken from the courtroom and returned to the Tanforan Assembly Center, and thereafter he and his family were placed in the Central Utah War Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah.

Fred Korematsu was placed in a horse stall with a single light bulb, and later said "jail was better than this".

Fred Korematsu was thus disdained for his opposition to a government order, and was even seen as a threat in the eyes of many Japanese Americans.

When Fred Korematsu's family was moved to the Topaz internment camp, he later recalled feeling isolated because his imprisoned compatriots recognized him and many, if not most, of them felt that if they talked to him they would be seen as troublemakers.

Fred Korematsu then appealed to the US Court of Appeals, which granted review on March 27,1943, but upheld the original verdict on January 7,1944.

Fred Korematsu appealed again and brought his case to the United States Supreme Court, which granted review on March 27,1944.

Fred Korematsu moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued to fight racism.

Fred Korematsu still knew there were inequalities among the Japanese, since he experienced them in his everyday life.

Fred Korematsu found work repairing water tanks in Salt Lake City, but after three months on the job, he discovered he was being paid half of what his white coworkers were being paid.

Fred Korematsu told his boss that this was unfair and asked to be paid the same amount, but his boss only threatened to call the police and try to get him arrested just for being Japanese, so he left his job.

Fred Korematsu married Kathryn Pearson in Detroit on October 12,1946.

Fred Korematsu's daughter was born in 1950, and a son, Ken, in 1954.

Fred Korematsu found the statement as empowering as Martin Luther King Jr.

Fred Korematsu spoke out after September 11,2001, on how the United States government should not let the same thing happen to people of Middle Eastern descent as what happened to Japanese Americans.

Furthermore, Fred Korematsu provided examples of specific cases in American history in which the government exceeded constitutional authority, including the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Japanese internment of World War II.

Similarly, in his second amicus brief, written in April 2004 with the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Asian Law Caucus, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach and the Japanese American Citizens League, Korematsu responded to Donald Rumsfeld v Jose Padilla.

From 2001 until his death, Fred Korematsu served on the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.

Fred Korematsu died of respiratory failure at his daughter's home in Marin County, California, on March 30,2005.

Fred Korematsu cited the Korematsu case and the similar precedent of Gordon Hirabayashi as blots on the reputation of the Office of the Solicitor General, which aspires to deserve "special credence" when pleading cases before the Supreme Court, and thus "an important reminder" of the need for absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on every case.