Korematsu v. US

Case: Korematsu v. United States (1944)

Parties involved: Fred Korematsu, a twenty year old Japanese American who was born in Oakland, California decided that he did not want to be interned in a relocation camp. Korematsu ignored the relocation order and went into hiding but was arrested and tried for having violated the evacuation order.

Facts of the case: The American Civil Liberties Union defended Korematsu in court, but the case was lost. He received five years probation and was sent off to an internment camp at Topaz, Utah. His actions violated Exclusion Order #34 and Executive Order #9066 of 1942, which had been issued to protect the West Coast from acts of espionage and sabotage. The Acts required all JapaneseAmericans living in restricted areas to go to inland relocation centers. Korematsu believed the order violated his constitutional rights being an American born citizen. After this initial defeat, Korematsus lawyers appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Their argument was based on the grounds that it was unconstitutional to take people out of their homes and put them in internment camps solely on the basis of their race. It was noted that other so-called enemy aliens like Italians and Germans had not been relocated. The lawyers argued that there was no evidence that Korematsu was in any way disloyal to the government including acts of sabotage or espionage. In addition, as an American citizen he had a constitutionally guaranteed right to be treated as an individual and not as a member of a particular racial group. The lawyers for the United States government pleaded that Fred Korematsu and the 112,000 of the other Japanese-Americans were interned under a lawful military order issued for the protection of Americas West Coast. The government lawyers also pointed out that it had been proven that certain Japanese-Americans were loyal to Japan and therefore a threat to the war efforts.

Courts decision: The Supreme Court did not announce its decision until December

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