Korematsu Vs. US
By: John Allen
Facts on World War II
- During World War II Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the Bubonic Plague.
- Two million German women from age 13-70 were allegedly raped by the Red Army during World War II.
- Queen Elizabeth II served as a mechanic and driver in World War II.
- US Solider John R. McKinley single-handedly held off over 100 Japanese Soldiers during World War II.
- After the War, Hitler planned to collect thousands of Jewish Artifacts and open a "Museum of an Extinct Race.
About the Case
After Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941, the military feared a Japanese attack on the U.S. mainland and the American government was worried that Americans of Japanese descent might aid the enemy. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order granting the U.S. military the power to ban tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to domestic security. The military then issued an order banning "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien" from a designated coastal area stretching from Washington State to southern Arizona. They set up internment camps to hold the Japanese Americans for the duration of the war.
Fred Korematsu, an American-born citizen of Japanese descent, refused to leave his home. The internment order had to apply to all Japanese Americans within the restricted area. Korematsu challenged his conviction in the courts saying that Congress, the President, and the military authorities did not have the power to issue the relocation orders and that he was being discriminated against based on his race. Balancing the country's stake in the war and national security against the "suspect" curtailment of the rights of a particular racial group, the Court decided that the nation's security concerns outweighed the Constitution's promise of equal rights.
Connections
Roosevelt was doing something like Hitler by creating the Internments Camps.