5. Korematsu v. United States
In this inquiry, students focus on the case Korematsu v. U.S. in comparison with other times in U.S. history when the government was faced with the challenge of how to protect the country during war and, at the same time, protect individual freedoms. Using primary sources, students will examine five events in which U.S. citizens were forced to give up their civil liberties in times of war, highlighting the tension between liberty and security.
The essential questions for this inquiry are: Is our government ever justified in restricting civil liberties for the security of the nation? Was Japanese Internment constitutional? How do the constitutional powers of the executive and legislative branches expand during wartime?
- Watch the video as an introduction to the Supreme Court case.
- Review the Korematsu v. United States primary source set and answer the questions associated with the sources (Not all sources have questions associated with them).
- Although many interned people were powerless to fight back, some did protest their treatment. Two men – Gordon Hirabayshi and Fred Korematsu – both initiated court cases that ended up before the Supreme Court. Read the these court summaries and answer:
- What laws did Gordon Hirabayashi violate?
- Do you agree with the Court’s reasoning for upholding a curfew based on racial discrimination?
- Why do you think the Court declined to rule on the relocation issue?
- Why do you think the Supreme Court can be more deferential to the Executive Branch during wartime?
- How would you describe Fred Korematsu’s actions?
4. Have students participate in a mock trial.
- After reading the Supreme Court opinion, hold a class discussion on the inquiry questions: Is our government ever justified in restricting civil liberties for the security of the nation? Was Japanese Internment constitutional? How do the constitutional powers of the executive and legislative branches expand during wartime? Be sure to have students cite specific evidence from the sources to support their answers.
6. Students may want to know if reparations were ever paid to the Japanese-Americans. In 1988, President Regan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Read more about it here.
The rest of Fred Korematsu's story...
After release from the Central Utah War Relocation Center, Fred Korematsu relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he later became a civil rights activist. In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation that officially ended Executive Order 9066 and apologized to all who had been held in the camps. In 1983, Korematsu appealed based upon new evidence. A federal judge vacated (threw out) his conviction, finding that in 1942 the government covered up evidence disproving the threat that Japanese Americans posed to the war effort. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which gave $20,000 to each surviving detainee of the camps. In 1998 President Bill Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for his civil rights advocacy.
Most people today believe that Korematsu was wrongly decided. In Trump v. Hawaii (2018), Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion for the Court stated, “Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—‘has no place in law under the Constitution (quoting Justice Jackson’s Korematsu dissent)’.” Justice Sotomayor in her dissent in Trump v. Hawaii (2018) noted, “the Court takes the important step of finally overruling Korematsu.”
Judge Marilyn H. Patel of Federal District Court in San Francisco overturned Mr. Korematsu's conviction in November 1983. In 1988, federal law provided for payments and apologies to Japanese-Americans relocated in World War II.... In her decision overturning Mr. Korematsu's conviction, Judge Patel said, "Korematsu stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared military necessity our institutions must be vigilant in protecting constitutional guarantees." Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/us/fred-korematsu-86-dies-lost-key-suit-on-internment.html