Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was a Japanese American living along the west coast of the

United States. He was born in Oakland, California in 1919, to Kotsui Aoki and Kakusaburo
Korematsu. His parents immigrated to the U.S. and settled in California in 1905. He went to all
public schools and participated in many school sports such as swimming and tennis. He worked
at his family's flower shop in a nearby town. Even while going to high school, he encountered
racism. An army recruiting officer was handing out recruitment flyers to his non-Japanese friends
when the officer blatantly said to Fred, We have orders not to accept you. His Italian
girlfriends parents also believed that Japanese people were inferior and unfit to mix with white
people. When World War Two started, Korematsu was rejected by the U.S. Navy when called for
military service because he had stomach ulcers. He instead decided to train to become a welder
so he could still contribute to the country's defense. He worked in a shipyard until one day he
came to work and couldnt find his time card. His co-workers quickly explained that he was a
Jap and couldnt work there. Korematsu found work again, but was fired after a week when the
supervisor got back and noticed a Jap working at the business. Being of Japanese descent made
it so he couldnt find a job after the war started. In 1942, General John DeWitt, commander of
the Western Defense Command, published the exclusion orders that prohibited people of
Japanese descent from leaving designated military areas to prepare for the Japanese peoples
move to internment camps. Korematsu underwent plastic surgery on his eyelids to look less
Japanese and more caucasian, and changed his name to Clyde Sarah. He was later found on a
street corner in Oakland and was arrested. Korematsus case was picked up by Ernest Besig, the
director of the American Civil Liberties Union, so he could use his case to challenge the legality
of the internment camps. Other members asked Besig to not do the case because they were
friends with FDR. Besig continued on with his plans. He went through court multiple times, not
winning. His family was moved to Topaz relocation center in Utah. He said that it was worse
than prison and that no one would talk to him and his family for fear of being labeled a
troublemaker.
The initial trial was the U.S. convicting Korematsu of breaking the law, but that fell
through when Korematsu decided to go to a second trial in which the roles were reversed. It was
now Korematsu against the U.S. challenging their decision to put all people of Japanese ancestry
on the west coast in internment camps across the western United States. Korematsus side, the
prosecution, argued This is the case of convicting a citizen as a punishment for not submitting
to imprisonment in a concentration camp, based on his ancestry, and solely because of his
ancestry, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition towards the
United States." They argued that the U.S should not be able to discriminate against his race and
ancestry without even knowing where his loyalties lie. The U.S governments, the defense, main
arguments against Korematsu were "When our shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power
to protect should be commensurate with the threatened danger. Approximately 5,000 American
citizens of Japanese ancestry refused to swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and to
renounce allegiance to the Japanese Emperor. The armed services must protect a society, not
merely its Constitution. Under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, which remains in effect today, the

U.S. may apprehend, intern and otherwise restrict the freedom of alien enemies upon
declaration of war or actual, attempted or threatened invasion by a foreign nation. The U.S. did
what they had to do during wartime. They only did what they believed was best for the society
without thinking of the constitution. In the end, the supreme court ruled against Korematsu and
upheld the exclusion orders that the government had put in place. They ruled that what the
Western Defense did to the Japanese people was justified because the country was at war and
feared an invasion of the Western coast and that they needed to take into consideration any
security options they could. Removal of people of Japanese ancestry was the best option.
There are many laws and legal jargon that went into this case. Lets start with the
Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The 4th Amendment basically states that everyone has a
right to stay in their home, own their body, and own their belonging unless the person trying to
gain access has a court appointed warrant. The 5th Amendment states that anyone brought to a
court case can not be convicted of the crime unless decided on by a jury. The only exceptions are
when the person is found on government land such as army and navy bases. The 6th Amendment
states that the accused person has a right to speedy and public trial with an unbiased jury and
judge. The accused is also entitles to know exactly what they are being accused of. The 14th
Amendment is also relevant to the case. Fred Korematsu was born on American soil and was
therefore an American citizen, and as a citizen was entitled to equal protection under the law, as
per the 14th Amendment. During war, congress has the right to declare war, but the President
takes over from there. The President takes control of the military and becomes the commanderin-chief. Executive Order 9066 basically stated that any persons in designated military areas
could be relocated. This in turn turned the entire west coast of the United States into a war zone
and the people they removed were almost completely Japanese Americans or people of Japanese
ancestry. Civilian Exclusion Order No.34 was an order from the Western Defense Command to
all people of Japanese ancestry to relocate from their homes to assembly centers. The Espionage
Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 are basically one in the same, with the latter just
extending the act brought around in the first one. The two acts were put into place to prohibit
many forms of speech including any disloyal, profane, or abusive language about the U.S.
government and or flag. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 made it legal for the president to remove
any male over the age of 14 if they were of an enemy country in origin in times of war. This act
branched out of the Alien Friends act which made it possible for the president to get rid of
anyone if they were dangerous to the peace of the United States. The Alien Registration Act of
1940, however, made it illegal to teach or advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government. The
Writ of Habeas Corpus, which translates to you may have the body, means that anyone being
arrested or detained has a right to know the reason for their arrest. Strict scrutiny is used in
supreme court cases to decide if something is constitutional or not. It is most often used in
conjunction with laws involving suspect classification. That means any law pertaining to a
certain class, such as race, sexual orientation, and religion. The three main sections that the court
uses when figuring out if something is constitutional are if the laws are narrowly tailored, if it is
compelling to national interests, and is the least restrictive means possible. This means that the

law needs to be specific to the reasons otherwise it is too broad and doesnt accomplish anything,
the law needs to be necessary and crucial to the government, and that the law needs to be the
least restrictive, respectively. Three cases that are closely related to Korematsu vs. U.S. are
Schenck vs. U.S., Hirabayashi vs. U.S., and Yasui vs. U.S.
Schenck vs. U.S. was set around the Alien Registration Act which means that Schenck was
advocating his first amendment rights to say whatever he wanted. The supreme court upheld the
government's ruling. Hirabayashi vs. U.S. and Yasui vs. U.S. were around a curfew law that was
in place for the western coast. They were arguing that it is unconstitutional for the U.S. to have
these laws in effect for people who were born and raised in the United States. They were
American citizens. The supreme court also held up this law on these two cases. These prior
rulings might affect my ruling in the Korematsu case by making me think about the government's
side more than I was planning on. It seemed that the cases were upheld because the U.S. was
really only looking out for the safety of the majority of its civilians. The huge difference between
these three cases and the Korematsu case is that these all addressed small parts of the racist laws
that were in place, but Korematsu addressed the whole idea of the internment camps, evacuation
orders, and Executive Order 9066.
The case is very interesting. As always, I can see both sides very clearly which is
probably good since I am supposed to be an unbiased judge. The side of Korematsu is definitely
the right side now, but back then, I probably wouldve ruled the same way the supreme court did.
The laws and orders that were in place back then are horrendous. They were very racist, which is
something that would never happen in the 21st century. Before this project I had no idea that the
U.S. would do something like this to some of its own citizens. The U.S. was fighting a war in
Europe against the Nazis who were putting people of the Jewish faith in concentration camps at
the same time they were putting any and all people of Japanese ancestry in internment camps,
which were basically just toned down concentration camps. Fred Korematsu did violate the
exclusion order because he did run from the law when he had to comply. He went out of his way
and got plastic surgery to try and change. He tried to look caucasian, while saying he was of
Spanish and Hawaiian descent. Executive Order 9066 was very unconstitutional because it put a
large group of people in inhumane camps just because of their skin color and nationality. Times
were difficult and confusing back then. Im positive that the government couldve had better
plans in place during that time, but its too late to change it.

Sources:
"List of 27 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution Summary of 1-27." Totally History List of 27
Amendments to the US Constitution Comments. Totallyhistory.com, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.
"Fred Korematsu." Fred Korematsu | Densho Encyclopedia. Densho, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.

"Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court." Classifying Arguments for Each Side of the Case
| Www.streetlaw.org. Street Law, Inc., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.
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