Korematsu v United States

In honor of the Google Doodle that was done recently (1/30/17), I wanted to take a deeper look into the revolutionary case of Korematsu v United States and how it shaped racial relations in America during World War II and even through today.

Fred Korematsu was a Japanese man who when hearing of the forced evacuation decided to pretend to be a Spanish Hawaiian; he forged papers and had plastic surgery done on his face, while changing his name to "Clyde Sarah". In 1942, he was arrested in California for not willing to go to the internment camps. He would eventually challenge the constitutionality of Order 9066 and how it infringed on citizen’s right to live in any area. During this time, Deputy Colonel Karl Bendesten was finishing Final Report: Japanese Evacuation was being finalized. It talked about the reasoning of the “military necessity” for Japanese people to be interned. However, when Justice Department Attorneys saw this report they found many of the accounts of Japanese aggression exaggerated or untrue. Thus, the lawyers decided to add a footnote at the end of the account saying that the Report was incorrect. However, pressured by the Assistant of the Secretary of War, the Justice Department deleted the footnote before the court got the evidence.
In the end the court ruled against Korematsu, stating that internment of the Japanese race was necessary in order to prevent espionage. They also reasoned that there was no way to distinguish the loyal Japanese Americans from the non-loyal ones, so interning all of them was the best way to ensure the greatest security. This decision was immediately met with great backlash around the country from civil rights activists all around the country, but the decision held firm. During this era, over 100,000 Japanese people were interned, with most of them being legal citizens. Two and a half years after Order 9066 was passed, President Roosevelt rescinded the order, thus shutting down all the internment camps by 1945.

To this day, the Korematsu decision has never been overturned, and many historians liken this case to the cases of Dred Scott and Plessy v Fergusson- both cases questioning the right of slavery and segregation, respectively. However, in 1988 the government pledged to give $20,000 to all the remaining interned people, a little compensation for a very traumatic time period. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Korematsu with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for continuing the country's "constant search for justice". This case was an important one in the Grand scheme of American history because it outlined how one's freedoms during war time were severely restricted.

Sources:
Freedom From Fear-The Cauldron of the Home Front
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_korematsu.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans