![]() Korematsu felt this firsthand as the threat of a second world war began to loom over the U.S. In the words of the government commission that later investigated Japanese incarceration, Japanese Americans in California “were effectively barred from participation in social and economic affairs.” And though California had the nation’s largest Asian American population, it was home to intense anti-Asian and anti-Japanese sentiment. Asian immigrants could not naturalize and gain American citizenship. But he was also subjected to the anti-Japanese sentiment and discrimination common at the time in California and other states. Anti-Asian prejudiceīorn in Oakland in 1919, Korematsu had what might be called an all-American childhood. Here's how Korematsu fought back, and why his case was so controversial. ( Subscriber exclusive: Scenes from Japanese incarceration still resonate today.) And Korematsu would make history as a Japanese American civil rights icon, before his death at age 86 in 2005. Supreme Court, where the decision bearing his name would become one of the high court’s most notorious rulings. His case would go all the way to the U.S. That day, his defiance got him arrested.įred Korematsu would go on to fight back, arguing that it was unconstitutional to detain a group of people in the name of military necessity. He had refused to obey the order that forced Japanese Americans into incarceration camps, and changed his name to try to avoid detection. Unconvinced, the police detained “Clyde Sarah”-who was actually Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu. The man, who gave his name as Clyde Sarah, insisted to police that he was Hawaiian, not Japanese. military orders that excluded Japanese Americans from the West Coast. It was May 30, 1942, and police asked the man why he hadn’t complied with U.S. The young man and his girlfriend were strolling down a street in San Leandro, California, when the police stopped them.
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