Korematsu vs. United States

By: Ronald Barnaby

Talking Points• Japanese immigration and US Anti-

Japanese Sentiment

• Pearl Harbor and Executive Order 9066

• Fred Korematsus path to the Supreme Court

• The verdict and dissent

• After effects and 1983

Japanese Immigration

• 1855 – 1919 — Over 300,000 Japanese immigrate to the United States.

• In 1917 many immigration agreements

reduced the amount of Asian people immigrating to the U.S.

• Japanese immigrants were initially successful in establishing productive lives. Most of these immigrants were in Hawaii and California.

Anti-Japanese Sentiment

• The success of the Japan born immigrants (Issei) in the U.S. lead to a growing national anti-Japanese sentiment.

• Segregation in schools• Barred from marrying whites• Barred from becoming citizens• Barred from owning land

• The anti-Japanese sentiment would continue to escalate until WWII and is a principle reason behind Executive Order 9066.

• On December 7th 1941, Japan enters WWII by attacking U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, HI.

• This attack lead to national fears that Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans would side with Japan and attack the U.S. from within the country.

• These fears lead to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066. This order allowed the internment of many Japanese in specific areas of the country.

• Ultimately over 120,000 Japanese were placed in internment camps. Over 70,000 of these were American citizens.

Pearl Harbor and E.O. 9066

• After the U.S. Army issued Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34, Fred Korematsu remained in San Leandro, Ca. This violation lead to his arrest.

• Korematsu claimed that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment, and appealed his case. California’s 9th circuit upheld his conviction and the case moved to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fred Korematsu vs United States

• In 1944 the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 majority to uphold Executive Order 9066, thus ruling in favor of The United States.

• Justice Murphy dissented saying:

“I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States. All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must, accordingly, be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment, and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.”

The Verdict & Murphy’s Dissent

• The Korematsu trial showed that the exclusion order was constitutional and that individual rights were outweighed by the need to protect from espionage.

• In 1983 Fred Korematsu’s conviction was overturned but the ruling was not.

• In 2011 Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was quoted:

“the Supreme Court's Korematsu decision

upholding the internment of Japanese Americans was wrong, but it could happen again in war time."

After Effects and 1983

Works Cited

End

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korematsu_v._United_States• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia• http://korematsuinstitute.org/• http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Page/297/• http://

www.archives.gov/research/immigration/enemy-aliens-overview.html

• http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/323/214