Monday’s Google Doodle celebrated the birthday of Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American who defied government orders to relocate to an internment camp during World War II.
In 1942, Korematsu was one of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent who were forced to leave their homes and most of their worldly possessions under Executive Order No. 9066. The order, signed by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) in response to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, gave the U. S. Army the green light to round up Japanese-Americans and place them in designated military zones.
The effort was later considered a low point in U. S. history, a moment where fear overwhelmed tolerance.
Korematsu refused to comply with the order and fled from his home in San Leandro, California to Oakland. Korematsu was soon captured and convicted, but he appealed the decision. Although the Supreme Court ruled against him 6-3, the decision was overturned in 1983.
In the original Supreme Court ruling, dissenting Justice Robert Jackson said that the only crime Korematsu committed was “being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born and where all his life he has lived.
