Fred Korematsu underwent many drastic lifestyle changes in order to simply live his life as a U.S. citizen, from assuming a fake name and national descent to receiving plastic surgery to alter his eye shape and make him less likely to be found by U.S. military. Despite these decisions, he was still found and arrested on a street corner in San Leandro, California and held in the county jail for five months.
During this time, he was visited by the director of the American Civil Liberties Union, San Francisco branch, Ernest Besig, and asked if he would like to be the first ‘test case’ for fighting the government back over the unfair treatment of Japanese-Americans, to which he agreed. On May 30, 1942, his case finally went to court, where he was convicted ‘for violating the military orders issued under Executive Order 9066’ (Korematsu Institute, Fred Korematsu v. United States). He was immediately put on five years probation and moved for incarceration camp to …show more content…
However, in the 1980’s, several events took place that restored his honor as a U.S. citizen, from the then-president Jimmy Carter making his own investigation of the World War II happenings, to the CWRIC concluding openly that the treatment of Japanese-Americans from that time was solely based on racial prejudice and pitiful government wellbeing, to the findings of political science professor Peter Irons and researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga discovering proof of hidden evidence in the 1943-1944 appeal case, from simple suppression to destruction of documents. With this new material, several non-paid lawyers reopened his case in 1983, ultimately overturning his past conviction. Despite this victory, all that Korematsu had to say to the judge was
During this time, he was visited by the director of the American Civil Liberties Union, San Francisco branch, Ernest Besig, and asked if he would like to be the first ‘test case’ for fighting the government back over the unfair treatment of Japanese-Americans, to which he agreed. On May 30, 1942, his case finally went to court, where he was convicted ‘for violating the military orders issued under Executive Order 9066’ (Korematsu Institute, Fred Korematsu v. United States). He was immediately put on five years probation and moved for incarceration camp to …show more content…
However, in the 1980’s, several events took place that restored his honor as a U.S. citizen, from the then-president Jimmy Carter making his own investigation of the World War II happenings, to the CWRIC concluding openly that the treatment of Japanese-Americans from that time was solely based on racial prejudice and pitiful government wellbeing, to the findings of political science professor Peter Irons and researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga discovering proof of hidden evidence in the 1943-1944 appeal case, from simple suppression to destruction of documents. With this new material, several non-paid lawyers reopened his case in 1983, ultimately overturning his past conviction. Despite this victory, all that Korematsu had to say to the judge was