Who Is Fred Korematsu's Fifth Ammendment?

Superior Essays
Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor during WWII, President Roosevelt feared for national security and the large population of Japanese-American citizens living on or near the coast. He ordered all citizens and resident aliens to be moved inland. Fred Korematsu was arrested on May 30, 1942, in San Leandro, California for being on public streets and not complying with the government’s orders for individuals of Japanese background of any kind to evacuate the coast and move inland to detention centers. Korematsu was born in America to parents who immigrated to the United States from Japan. In response to his arrest, Koremastu argued that Executive Order 9066 violates the Fifth Amendment. Thus, it initiated one of the most infamous Supreme Court …show more content…
Edgar Hoover of the FBI, the FCC, the Office of Naval Intelligence and other authoritative intelligence agencies categorically denied that Japanese Americans had committed any wrongdoing”, Ennis withheld these documents from the Supreme Court (4). More than that, he had the reports burned; all but one went unnoticed and four decades later re-opened Fred Korematsu’s case. The U. S. The Department of Justice offered Fred a pardon if he dismissed the lawsuit, but “Fred was not interested in a pardon from the government; instead, he always felt that it was the government who should seek a pardon from him and from Japanese Americans for the Wrong that was committed” (4). Fred Korematsu’s legacy extends far beyond his official pardoning on November 10, 1983. Mr. Korematsu stood before Judge Marilyn Patel of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco and said “According to the Supreme Court decision regarding my case, being an American was not enough.I felt this decision was wrong and I still feel that way. As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without trial or hearing.I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or

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