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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 27, 2014 04:44 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Mark B. Cohen |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Resolution designating January 30, 2014, as the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties in Pennsylvania |
| I will soon introduce a resolution designating January 30, 2014, as the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties in Pennsylvania. Mr. Korematsu was one of the thousands of Japanese American citizens living on the West Coast during World War II who were interned as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the Secretary of War and his military commanders to remove all persons of Japanese ancestry, including American citizens, from the West Coast. Mr. Korematsu refused to heed the orders and continued to live and work in Oakland until his arrest on May 30, 1942 and ultimate conviction. Fred Korematsu appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled against him in a 6-3 decision on December 18, 1944, declaring the incarceration was justified by “military necessity” and claims that Americans of Japanese ancestry were radio-signaling enemy ships from shore and were prone to dishonesty. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel formally vacated the conviction against Mr. Korematsu on November 10, 1983, on the grounds of government misconduct and suppression, alteration and destruction of material evidence at the time of the 1944 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The action did not overturn the court’s decision. It did clear Mr. Korematu’s name and is a pivotal movement in civil rights history. Mr. Korematsu’s advocacy did not stop with his own internment. He remained an activist throughout his life and in 1998 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President William J. Clinton. Fred Korematsu also filed two briefs with the Supreme Court after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States when he felt prisoners were detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long, and spoke out about racial profiling in 2004, stating “No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese-Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy.” Please join me in recognizing Fred Korematsu for his contributions to civil liberties by co-sponsoring this resolution. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kathy Seidl of my office at kseidl@verizon.net or 78704117. Thank you. |
Introduced as HR654