Final clue in the Jeopardy! Masters finals tonight, and 1 of 3 remembered: Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the exclusion issued in 1942 Executive Order 9066.
Dissenting justice Frank Murphy wrote the exclusion of Japanese “falls into the ugly abyss of racism,” and resembled “the abhorrent and despicable treatment of minority groups by the dictatorial tyrannies which this nation is now pledged to destroy.”
By 1983, a California district court discovered there was no evidence that Japanese Americans were acting as spies for Japan during WWII.
Those who were interned were later granted reparations through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (including many born to Japanese immigrants (Issei) in the USA, Nisei like Korematsu, born and raised in Oakland).
In 2018, the Supreme Court overruled Korematsu v. United States.
Fred Korematsu spent decades peacefully advocating for justice for himself and others.
For more insights on this time in history, you can read Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.
Also, the 442nd Infantry Regiment (including 100th Infantry Battalion) was the most decorated unit in US military history and was composed of second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry. They were transferred from an internment camp in the US to fight in the European Theatre.
If our country imprisoned you and your family, could you fight for this country and perhaps give your life in order to “Go For Broke”?
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