Celebrating Fred Korematsu Day

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson encouraged all Californians to observe the annual Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on Korematsu’s birthday, Monday, January 30, 2012.

Korematsu was born in Oakland, California in 1919. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, he defied President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which authorized the U.S. military to forcibly remove more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent from their homes and incarcerate them in camps throughout the country. Two-thirds of the people were American citizens. Korematsu was arrested and convicted of violating the federal order. He lost appeals all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Four decades later, after a legal historian discovered evidence proving that U.S. intelligence agencies knew that Japanese Americans posed no military threat to the country during World War II, Korematsu’s conviction was overturned in federal court.

Fred Korematsu went on to champion the cause of civil liberties, not only seeking redress for Japanese Americans who were wrongfully incarcerated, but also traveling the country to advocate for the civil rights of other victims, especially after 9/11. He received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton. Korematsu passed away in 2005 at the age of 86.

California legislation made January 30 Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. California Education Code Section 37222.15 encourages schools and local educational agencies to “conduct exercises remembering the life of Fred Korematsu and recognizing the importance of preserving civil liberties, even in times of real or perceived crisis.”

For more educational resources on civil rights and the U.S. Constitution, please visit the California Department of Education’s website. To learn more about Fred Korematsu, download free teaching kits developed through private donations, and access online educational resources, please visit the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education website. The Seattle University School of Law Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality seeks through reasearch, advocacy, and education to promote Korematsu’s vision for equality and justice for all.

KJ