BC: Works Cited Adams, Ansel. Teenage students walking on a dirt road, carrying books. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2012.
FC: Korematsu V. United States of America
1: Table of Contents | 1.Japanese Come to America 2.Attack on Pearl Harbor 3.Executive Order 9066 4.Interment Camps 5.Fred Korematsu 6.Path to the Supreme Court 7.Path to the Supreme Court 8.Path to the Supreme Court 9.Path to the Supreme Court: Crucial Question 10.Korematsu v. United States 11.The Case for the Government 12.The Case for the Government 13.Fred Korematsu Case 14.Fred Korematsu Case 15.The Decision 16.The Decision | 17.The Decision 18.The Decision 19.Reopened 20.Reopened 21.Reopened 22.Reopened 23.Reopened 24.Reopened: The Conclusion 25.Aftermath 26.Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act 27.Money and Pain 28.Never Again 29.Fred Korematsu
2: When the Chinese's Exclusion Act of 1882 got over turned, Americans noticed a large wave of Japanese immigrants come to America. | California was one of the states that had a new huge population of Japanese immigrants. Californians were not happy with the new arrivals, Japanese immigrants turned out to be very good at farming. Which they felt threated there jobs. | Japanese Come to America
3: One the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. | The next day US declared war on Japan | Americas began to fear the Japanese immigrants Radio and papers played into peoples fear by saying Japanese- Americans should not be trusted. | Once a Jap, Always a Jap – Congressman John Ranking of Mississippi | Attack on Pearl Harbor
4: Executive Order 9066 | Feb. 14, 1942 General Dewitt sent a final recommendation to the secretary of war. He was asking for the presidents permission to remove all enemy Aliens and people of Japanese Ancestry from the west coast. | Executive Order 9066 gave the military commander the power to select certain parts of the west coast, and call them areas. Order 9066 gave the military commander permission to keep out any and all people he decided were a threat to security (mostly Japanse.)
5: Interment Camps | On March 21, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Public Law 503. This new law made it a federal crime to disobey any of General Dewhitt’s orders. 3 days later Dewhitt set a curfew for Americas of German, Italian, and Japanese in the military area. | Each person received one mattress and a cot, and got a light bulb for each room
6: Fred Korematsu | Born in the America, his parents are Japanese immigrants. | The Army put Fred under house arrest because he refused to leave California. | Fred can barely speak Japanese | He was charged with breaking Public Law 503. he was sentenced to five years probation.
7: Path to the Supreme Court | -After Korematsu was charged, the Army insisted that Korematsu was still supposed to be in an assembly center so they Army took him into custody in the courthouse. | -He was brought to the Tanforan assembly center, but the reason he was held captive was solely because he was a Japanese American, not for any type of punishment.
8: Korematsu appealed his case to the US Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit saying that DeWitt’s orders and Public Law 503 were against the Constitution. | The Circuit Court asked the Supreme Court to make the decision on if the case could be appealed without Korematsu having a sentence. | Path to the Supreme Court
9: The Supreme Court affirmed it and sent it back to the Circuit Court which then upheld Korematsu’s conviction. | Path to the Supreme Court
10: The Supreme Court then agreed to hear the appeal due to the serious nature of Korematsu’s claim that his civil rights had been violated. | Path to the Supreme Court: Crucial Question
11: Korematsu v. United States
12: The Case for the Government | Team of lawyers included Edward Ennis, Ralph Fuchs, and John Burling | List of the army's reason for evacuating the Japanese Americans in Order to protect us from spying 1.There were reports of signaling from shore to enemy shops at sea 2.The loyal Japanese Americans could not be separated from the disloyal quickly enough 3.Many Japanese Americans lived near military areas where they could cause the most damage 4.The many Japanese organizations and schools on the West Coast might encourage loyalty to Japan
13: The governments arguments to the supreme court fell into four basic categories 1.Korematsu should not be allowed to challenge internment at all because he did not raise the issue at his original trail 2.Internment was not even an issue in Korematsu’s case 3.Evacuation and internment were simply used as a way of keeping safety and order on the West Coast 4.The War Power Clause of the United states Constitution allows special measures in order to win a war
14: Fred Korematsu Case | The supreme court got an amicus curiae brief from Charles Horsky. He was an attorney with the Washington D.C., office of the ACLU. His brief stated 1.Korematsu should be able to attack the detention portion of the program. 2.There was no real military necessity for evacuation and detention of Japanese American 3.DeWhitts orders were based on racist beliefs
15: Fred's lawyers stated three main things 1.Korematsu should not have been treated differently under the law because of his race 2.Korematsu should have had a trial of his race 3.Public Law 503 was an unconstitutional transfer of power to DeWhitt | Fred Korematsu found him self behind barbed wire, not because he was found guilty of breaking Public Law 503 but because of his Japanese ancestry. | When the Japanese America Citizens League (JACL) submitted an Amicus brief, it aimed its comments mostly at DeWhitts racist statements. They JACL hoped to prove that DeWhitts Programs were set in motion by racist feeling instead of military need.
16: The Decision | On December 18, 1944, Justice Hugo Black made his decision: the Court upheld the exclusion order. | However, he stated that it was constitutional at the time that Korematsu violated it.
17: Justice Black then wrote that all laws that cut back on the civil rights of a racial group were to be questioned to ensure that no law is passed out of racism... | But decided that this law had a “definite and close relationship to preventing espionage and sabotage”. | The Decision
18: Korematsu said that the 3 basic commands of the military orders ultimately implemented a plot to jail Japanese Ameicans living on the West Coast. | People of Japanese descent were... 1. Not allowed to leave the area 2. Required to report to assembly centers 3. Required to go under military guard to relocation centers where they had to stay until they were released | The Decision | Justice Black stated that the 3 orders were steps of a complete evacuation plan.
19: The Decision | Korematsu was only charged with failing to evacuate. | The Supreme Court made its final decision that the evacuation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast did not violate the Constitution under the facts of this case.
20: Reopened | In 1983, newly uncovered evidence revealed that Korematsu’s attorneys did not have all the facts at hand when they presented their case at each stage. | On January 19, 1983, Korematsu’s attorneys filed a motion in U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California in San Francisco. | The argument: in 1942, information had been withheld from Koretmatsu’s lawyers, which prevented the trial court from coming to a just conclusion.
21: Reopened | Upon the reopening of the case, the government discussed a possible presidential pardon for Korematsu. | Presidential pardon: “we still believe you are guilty, but we forgive you” | This was not acceptable to Korematsu.
22: Reopened | In 1941, DeWitt first stated that he believed the loyal Japanese Americans and the disloyal ones could be separated, but then in a later report to the War Department contradicted this by claiming that the loyal Japanese Americans could never be separated from the disloyal ones, no matter how much time there was. | Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy noticed the difference in the two statements and was worried that this difference would result in DeWitt appearing less believable.
23: Reopened | The War Department strengthened its argument by making changes to the final report which now said that “loyal and disloyal Japanese Americans could not be separated in a way that would be quick enough under the circumstance.” | The new version of the report masked DeWitt’s openly racist motive. | The War Department destroyed all records of the unchanged report.
24: Reopened | Korematsu’s attorneys filed a petition in Federal District Court requesting that his case be reopened. | The motion asked the Court dismiss the charges against Korematsu, because they did not want to continue the prosecution.
25: Reopened: The Conclusion | Judge Patel found that there was enough evidence to show the court must correct a “complete miscarriage of justice” and ordered that Korematsu’s motion to set aside his conviction be granted.
26: Aftermath | The United States Army announced its Decision to end the evacuation and internment program hours before the Korematsu decision was to be handed down by the Supreme Court. Still, the exclusion order did not formally come to an end until January 2, 1945 | In 1948, Congress passed the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act. This law allowed those who were in internment camps to file claims with the federal government asking the United States government to pay back the Japanese Americans for the money or property they lost. | This was NOT very effective.
27: Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act | During the first two years, more than twenty-six thousand claims were sent to the attorney general, and only 232 were settled. | When one person filed a claim for $450 under the act the government spent $1,000 trying to fight it. | Yoshio Elkimoto filed a claim under this act, because he lost his farm and other personal property. Even worse pain came to Ekimoto when his wife miscarried as a result as internment. He claimed $23,824 for the loss of his property, but the government only paid him $692
28: Money and Pain | JACL wanted congress to pay a large sum of money to the people who had been in the camps. 98% of the Japanese American population supported this idea. | Senator Jess Helms of North Carolina did not want the bill, to give money the survivors, to pass until the Japanese government first tool action. He wanted Japan to make payments to the families of Americans killed in the attack of Pearl harbor.
29: Never Again | In 1971, president Nixon signed a law that required action by congress before any order like executive Order 9066 could ever be issued again.
30: Fred Korematsu | To commemorate his journey as a Civil rights activist, the "Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution" was observed for first time on January 30, 2011, by the state of California, and first such commemoration for an Asian Americas in the US. | On March 30, 2005, Mr. Korematsu died of respiratory failure at the age of 86. Hundreds of people packed his Memorial Service at First Presbyterian Church in Oakland, CA to pay their final respects to a civil rights icon. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn, daughter, Karen, and son, Ken.
31: Citations | 1., and First Last. Asian American Bar Association. N/A. Photograph. Asian American Bar Association, The Greater Bay Area. Web. 23 May 2012.