Fred Korematsu is best known for his defiance of the U.S. government’s internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and for challenging the constitutionality of this policy. Born in 1919 in Oakland, California, Korematsu was a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent who resisted the forced relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, when the government ordered Japanese Americans to relocate to camps, Korematsu chose to stay in his home in defiance of the order. He was arrested and convicted, and his case, Korematsu v. United States, went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1944, where the Court upheld the internment policy in a controversial decision.
Decades later, Korematsu’s case was revisited, and in the 1980s, new evidence surfaced showing that the government had withheld crucial information about the lack of military necessity for the internment. In 1983, his conviction was overturned, and in 1998, Korematsu was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. Though the Korematsu decision was never formally overturned by the Court, Korematsu’s actions and legal challenge became a symbol of resistance against racial discrimination and government overreach. His legacy is a reminder of the importance of defending civil liberties, even in times of national crisis, and his story has had a lasting impact on the conversation around civil rights in America.