[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4432-S4434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING FRED T. KOREMATSU

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 126, submitted 
earlier today by Senator Durbin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 126) honoring Fred T. Korematsu for 
     his loyalty and patriotism to the United States and 
     expressing condolences to his family, friends, and supporters 
     on his death.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution and preamble be agreed to, en bloc, the motion to reconsider 
be laid upon the table, with no intervening action, and that any 
statements relating to this resolution be printed in the Record.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I will 
not object, I would like to say a brief word or two about this 
resolution honoring the life of a great American who passed away 
recently. I am proud to be joined by Senators Inouye and Stevens on 
this resolution.

  Three weeks ago, when I heard that Fred Korematsu died at the age of 
86, I came to the Senate floor and paid my tribute. But because his 
place in our Nation's history is so important, I have come to the floor 
again to ask the entire Senate to recognize this man with this 
resolution.
  In recent months, I have had several occasions to mention Fred 
Korematsu's name in committee and floor proceedings, because the story 
about the injustices he and thousands of others faced as a Japanese 
American during from World War II is one that we should never forget.
  Today, as our Nation is engaged in a global war on terrorism and when 
we are confronting the issues of the balance between civil liberties 
and security, Fred Korematsu's name is a reminder that we need to learn 
from our history, as difficult and shameful as it may be.
  In November 2003, Fred Korematsu filed a brief before the Supreme 
Court in a case involving the detentions at Guantanamo Bay. His brief 
contained a simple plea to the government: ``to avoid repeating the 
mistakes of the past, this court should make clear that the United 
States respects constitutional and human rights, even in times of 
war.''
  As leaders in Washington, we are responsible for a wide range of 
legislative and policy decisions that will have impact on millions of 
lives of our fellow Americans. As we deliberate and debate these 
issues, I hope all my colleagues will continue to heed the wise words 
of this humble man.
  Fred Korematsu died on March 30 at his daughter's home in Larkspur, 
CA, after a long illness. He leaves behind his wife, Kathryn, and their 
son and daughter. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family and 
friends, and we honor his memory today with this resolution.
  I ask my colleagues to support this resolution honoring a true 
American hero.
  Fred Korematsu is a family name known to every student who has ever 
gone through law school. It was Mr. Korematsu who filed the law case 
protesting the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. 
His family, like so many others, was discriminated against simply 
because of their heritage. We now realize it was a serious mistake and 
a great disservice to many loyal and patriotic Japanese Americans.
  His recent passing was a reminder of this man's courage throughout 
his life, and I hope that this resolution, when it is sent to his 
family, will be a fitting tribute from the Senate for all the 
contributions they and his family have made to America.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the Senate 
resolution honoring Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu for his loyalty and 
patriotism to the United States and expressing condolences to Fred's 
family, friends and supporters on his passing.
  On March 30, 2005, our Nation lost a deeply compassionate man and a 
great American patriot. Fred profoundly influenced the course of 
American history and legal jurisprudence when he led a courageous legal 
challenge against the internment of Japanese Americans by the United 
States Government. Fred was born in Oakland, CA, in 1919. His parents 
were Japanese immigrants who ran a flower nursery while Fred attended 
Castlemont High School and later the Master School of Welding. Fred 
worked on the Oakland docks as a steel welder and was quickly promoted 
to a foreman position.
  The war in Europe, however, changed his life. America began providing 
supplies to Great Britain in its war against Germany and Germany's 
allies, including the country of Japan. At home in California, when 
Fred entered restaurants, waiters refused to serve him because of his 
ancestry. Fred's union terminated his membership, and Fred lost his 
job. American by birth, Fred wished to prove his patriotism by joining 
the United States Coast Guard, but the recruiting officer refused his 
application. Fred eventually found work with a mobile trailer company, 
but after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, his employer 
fired him.
  Fred was 22 years old when President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 
9066, authorizing military commanders on the West Coast to issue 
whatever orders necessary for national security. Curfews, exclusionary 
orders, and the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans soon followed, 
and the Korematsu family was taken to the Tanforan racetrack in San 
Mateo. Fred, however, held a deep conviction that the constitutional 
rights of Japanese Americans were being violated by the internment 
order issued without any real evidence of disloyalty, without specific 
charges, and without trial, and so Fred chose to defy the order.

  Fred assumed a non-Japanese identity and even had plastic surgery in 
an attempt to change his appearance. Nevertheless, the police stopped 
him in San Leandro and Fred was charged with violating the military's 
exclusion order. Fred was sent to Federal prison and later to live with 
his family in a

[[Page S4433]]

horse stall at the Tanforan racetrack. The Korematsus performed hard 
labor behind barbed wire and under the watch of armed guards. Other 
Japanese Americans in the internment camp avoided him, fearing for the 
safety of their own families. The Federal district court found Fred 
guilty of violating military exclusion orders, and sentenced him to 5 
years of probation under military authority. Fred appealed that 
decision. Meanwhile, after a year and a half of laboring in the 
interment camp, Fred's skill as a welder enabled him to leave the camp, 
on the condition that he not return to California. He got a job as a 
welder in an iron works company in Salt Lake City, and eventually, made 
his way to Detroit.
  Fred's appeal reached the Supreme Court in 1944. The Court upheld the 
lower court's ruling in a 6-3 vote, citing the simple reason that the 
internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry was a military 
necessity in light of the war with Japan. Fred petitioned for a 
rehearing, but it was denied in February 1945.
  Fred eventually met and married Kathryn and raised a family. Like 
many Japanese Americans, Fred tried to put his internment experiences 
behind him, but he was unable to pursue many job opportunities because 
his violation of the exclusion order left him with a criminal record. 
He once worked on an application to become a real estate broker, but 
when he came across the question that asked whether he had prior 
criminal convictions, he threw the application away. Although Fred 
worked as a draftsman, he did not apply to work at larger companies or 
government agencies, as they would not hire someone who had a prior 
conviction on record. Without a pension, Fred worked part time to make 
ends meet, even while in his eighties.
  In the early 1980s, a volunteer legal team began to accumulate 
evidence that government officials had possessed significant 
information that Japanese Americans had not posed an actual threat to 
national security at the time of the interment, and the team approached 
Fred to file a coram nobis petition to review events that occurred 40 
years earlier that denied Fred a fair hearing.
  In late 1983, a Federal court in San Francisco overturned Fred's 
guilty conviction, stating that the Government's case at the time had 
been based on false and biased information.
  The court's decision was a landmark and a critical turning point in 
history. The volunteer legal team that gravitated to Fred was driven by 
his courage, his unshakable sense of right and wrong, and his faith in 
the American Constitution. The court's 1983 holding in Korematsu v. 
U.S., coram nobis, set in motion a chain of important events. Shortly 
following the success of that case, Congress ordered a commission 
report on the internment of Japanese Americans. Upon the commission's 
finding that internment orders were issued without proper basis, 
Congress in 1988 passed legislation for a Presidential apology and 
reparations to Japanese American internees.
  Ten years later, in 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Fred with 
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the 
United States. During that ceremony, the President stated, ``In the 
long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names 
of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls--Plessy, Brown, Parks. 
To that distinguished list today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.''
  To many, Fred was more than just a distinguished name. Fred shared 
his riveting and protracted story about justice with thousands of young 
Americans, and he has deeply touched and inspired a new generation of 
civil rights attorneys. Fred's zest for life, courage, patriotism, 
compassion, gentle humor, strong will, and delight in teaching others 
has endeared him to many. He graced our midst, and by example, 
encouraged all of us to never abandon our Nation's cherished 
constitutional principles and values.
  Fred Korematsu was a devoted husband and father, a teacher, a 
trailblazer, a hero, and a great American.
  The resolution (S. Res. 126) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 126

       Whereas on January 30, 1919, Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was 
     born in Oakland, California, to Japanese immigrants;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu graduated from Oakland High School 
     and tried on 2 occasions to enlist in the United States Army 
     but was not accepted due to a physical disability;
       Whereas on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United 
     States military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, forcing the 
     United States to enter World War II against Japan, Germany, 
     and Italy;
       Whereas on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. 
     Roosevelt signed Executive Order number 9066 (42 Fed. Reg. 
     1563) as ``protection against espionage and against sabotage 
     to national defense'', which authorized the designation of 
     ``military areas . . . from which any or all persons may be 
     excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person 
     to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever 
     restriction the . . . Military Commander may impose in his 
     discretion'';
       Whereas the United States Army issued Civilian Exclusion 
     Order Number 34, directing that after May 9, 1942, all 
     persons of Japanese ancestry were to be removed from 
     designated areas of the West Coast because they were 
     considered to be a security threat;
       Whereas in response to that Civilian Exclusion Order, Fred 
     Korematsu's family reported to Tanforan, a former racetrack 
     in the San Francisco area that was used as 1 of 15 temporary 
     detention centers, before being sent to an internment camp in 
     Topaz, Utah;
       Whereas more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were similarly 
     detained in 10 permanent War Relocation Authority camps 
     located in isolated desert areas of the States of Arizona, 
     Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, 
     without any charges brought or due process accorded;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu, then 22 years old and working as a 
     shipyard welder in Oakland, California, refused to join his 
     family in reporting to Tanforan, based on his belief that he 
     was a loyal American and not a security threat;
       Whereas on May 30, 1942, Fred Korematsu was arrested and 
     jailed for remaining in a military area, tried in United 
     States district court, found guilty of violating Civilian 
     Exclusion Order Number 34, and sentenced to 5 years of 
     probation;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu unsuccessfully challenged that 
     Civilian Exclusion Order as it applied to him, and appealed 
     the decision of the district court to the United States Court 
     of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where his conviction was 
     sustained;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu was subsequently confined with his 
     family in the internment camp in Topaz for 2 years, and 
     during that time, he appealed his conviction to the United 
     States Supreme Court;
       Whereas on December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court issued its 
     decision in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, which 
     upheld Fred Korematsu's conviction by a vote of 6-to-3, based 
     on the finding of the Supreme Court that Fred Korematsu was 
     not removed from his home ``because of hostility to him or 
     his race'' but because the United States was at war with 
     Japan and the United States military ``feared an invasion of 
     our West Coast'';
       Whereas Fred Korematsu continued to maintain his innocence 
     for decades following World War II;
       Whereas, under section 552 of title 5, United States Code 
     (commonly known as the ``Freedom of Information Act''), an 
     historian discovered numerous government documents indicating 
     that, at the time Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 
     was decided, the Federal Government suppressed findings that 
     Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not security 
     threats;
       Whereas in light of this newly discovered information, Fred 
     Korematsu filed a writ of error coram nobis with the United 
     States District Court for the Northern District of 
     California;
       Whereas on November 10, 1983, United States District Judge 
     Marilyn Hall Patel overturned Fred Korematsu's conviction, 
     concluding that senior government officials knew there was no 
     factual basis for the claim of ``military necessity'' when 
     they presented their case before the Supreme Court in 1944;
       Whereas in that decision, Judge Patel stated that, while 
     Korematsu v. United States ``remains on the pages of our 
     legal and political history...[as] historical precedent it 
     stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared 
     military necessity our institutions must be vigilant in 
     protecting constitutional guarantees'';
       Whereas the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment 
     of Civilians, authorized by Congress in 1980 to review the 
     facts and circumstances surrounding the relocation and 
     internment of Japanese Americans under Executive Order Number 
     9066 (42 Fed. Reg. 1563), concluded that ``today the decision 
     in Korematsu lies overruled in the court of history'';
       Whereas the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment 
     of Civilians concluded that a ``grave personal injustice was 
     done to the American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese 
     ancestry who, without individual review or any probative 
     evidence against them were excluded, removed and detained by 
     the United States during World War II'', and that those acts 
     were ``motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime 
     hysteria, and a failure of political leadership'';

[[Page S4434]]

       Whereas the overturning of Fred Korematsu's conviction and 
     the findings of Commission on Wartime Relocation and 
     Internment of Civilians influenced the decision by Congress 
     to pass the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. App. 1989b 
     et seq.) to request a Presidential apology and symbolic 
     payment of compensation to persons of Japanese ancestry who 
     lost liberty or property because of discriminatory action by 
     the Federal Government;
       Whereas on August 10, 1988, President Reagan signed that 
     Act into law, stating, ``[H]ere we admit a wrong; here we 
     reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under 
     the law'';
       Whereas on January 15, 1998, President Clinton awarded the 
     Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United 
     States, to Fred Korematsu, stating, ``In the long history of 
     our country's constant search for justice, some names of 
     ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, Brown, 
     Parks. To that distinguished list, today we add the name of 
     Fred Korematsu.'';
       Whereas Fred Korematsu remained a tireless advocate for 
     civil liberties and justice throughout his life, particularly 
     speaking out against racial discrimination and violence 
     targeting Arab, Muslim, South Asian, and Sikh Americans in 
     the wake of the September 11, 2001, tragedy, and cautioning 
     the Federal Government against repeating mistakes of the past 
     by singling out individuals for heightened scrutiny on the 
     basis of race, ethnicity, or religion;
       Whereas on March 30, 2005, Fred Korematsu died at the age 
     of 86 in Larkspur, California; and
       Whereas Fred Korematsu was a role model for all Americans 
     who love the United States and the promises contained in the 
     Constitution, and his strength and perseverance serve as an 
     inspiration for all people striving for equality and justice: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) honors Fred T. Korematsu for his loyalty and patriotism 
     to the United States, his work to advocate for the civil 
     rights and civil liberties of all Americans, and his 
     dedication to justice and equality; and
       (2) expresses its deepest condolences to his family, 
     friends, and supporters on his death.

                          ____________________