2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Pearl Harbor and E.O. 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.
6. Fred Korematsu vs United States
• 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.
7. The Verdict & Murphy’s Dissent
• 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.”
8. After Effects and 1983
• 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."
9. Works Cited
• 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.
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• http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/323/214
