The Legacy of Korematsu: A Story of Confinement and Vindication, As Told through Archival Documents

Abstract

In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066 authorizing the exclusion of certain citizens from the west coast of the United States. That order began a cascade of other measures that culminated in the displacement and internment of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans and people of Japanese ancestry. Fred Korematsu, a native-born citizen of the United States and resident of California challenged the legality of the order in a series of cases and appeals that eventually ascended to the US Supreme Court. In the culmination of those disputes, Korematsu v. United States (hereinafter “Korematsu I”), the Supreme Court upheld his conviction.