[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 30, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S584-S585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SENATE RESOLUTION 387--RECOGNIZING JANUARY 30, 2018, AS ``FRED 
        KOREMATSU DAY OF CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE CONSTITUTION''

  Ms. HIRONO (for herself, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. 
Blumenthal, Mr. Coons, and Mrs. Feinstein) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 387

       Whereas, on January 30, 1919, Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was 
     born in Oakland, California, to Japanese immigrants;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu graduated from Castlemont High 
     School in 1937 and attempted to enlist in the military twice 
     but was unable to do so because his selective service 
     classification was changed to enemy alien, even though Fred 
     Korematsu was a United States citizen;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu trained as a welder and worked as a 
     foreman at the docks in Oakland until the date on which he 
     and all Japanese Americans were fired;
       Whereas, on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the military 
     base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing the United States to 
     declare war against Japan;
       Whereas, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. 
     Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (7 Fed. Reg. 1407 
     (February 25, 1942)), which authorized the Secretary of War 
     to prescribe military areas--
       (1) from which any or all people could be excluded; and
       (2) with respect to which, the right of any person to 
     enter, remain in, or leave would be subject to any 
     restriction the Military Commander imposed in his discretion;
       Whereas, on May 3, 1942, the Lieutenant General of the 
     Western Command of the Army issued Civilian Exclusion Order 
     34 (May 3, 1942) (referred to in this preamble as the 
     ``Civilian Exclusion Order'') directing that all people of 
     Japanese ancestry be removed from designated areas of the 
     West Coast after May 9, 1942, because people of Japanese 
     ancestry in the designated areas were considered to pose a 
     threat to national security;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu refused to comply with the Civilian 
     Exclusion Order and was arrested on May 30, 1942;

[[Page S585]]

       Whereas, after his arrest, Fred Korematsu--
       (1) was held for 2\1/2\ months in the Presidio stockade in 
     San Francisco, California;
       (2) was convicted on September 8, 1942, of violating the 
     Civilian Exclusion Order and sentenced to 5 years of 
     probation; and
       (3) was detained at Tanforan Assembly Center, a former 
     horse racetrack used as a holding facility for Japanese 
     Americans before he was exiled with his family to the Topaz 
     incarceration camp in the State of Utah;
       Whereas more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were similarly 
     detained, with no charges brought and without due process, in 
     10 permanent War Relocation Authority camps located in 
     isolated desert areas of the States of Arizona, Arkansas, 
     California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming;
       Whereas the people of the United States subject to the 
     Civilian Exclusion Order lost their homes, livelihoods, and 
     the freedoms inherent to all people of the United States;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu unsuccessfully challenged the 
     Civilian Exclusion Order as it applied to him and appealed 
     the decision of the United States District Court to the 
     United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which 
     sustained his conviction;
       Whereas Fred Korematsu was subsequently confined with his 
     family in the incarceration camp in Topaz, Utah, for 2 years, 
     and during that time, Fred Korematsu appealed his conviction 
     to the Supreme Court of the United States;
       Whereas, on December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court of the 
     United States issued Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 
     (1944), which--
       (1) upheld the conviction of Fred Korematsu by a vote of 6 
     to 3; and
       (2) concluded that Fred Korematsu was removed from his home 
     not based on hostility toward him or other Japanese Americans 
     but because the United States was at war with Japan and the 
     military feared a Japanese invasion of the West Coast;
       Whereas, in his dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United 
     States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), Justice Frank Murphy called the 
     Civilian Exclusion Order the ``legalization of racism'';
       Whereas Fred Korematsu continued to maintain his innocence 
     for decades following World War II, and his conviction 
     hampered his ability to gain employment;
       Whereas, in 1982, legal historian Peter Irons and 
     researcher Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig gained access to Government 
     documents under section 552 of title 5, United States Code 
     (commonly known as the ``Freedom of Information Act''), that 
     indicate that while the case of Fred Korematsu was before the 
     Supreme Court of the United States, the Federal Government 
     misled the Supreme Court of the United States and suppressed 
     findings that Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not 
     security threats;
       Whereas, in light of the newly discovered information, Fred 
     Korematsu filed a writ of error coram nobis with the United 
     States District Court for the Northern District of 
     California, and on November 10, 1983, United States District 
     Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued her decision in Korematsu v. 
     United States, 584 F. Supp. 1406 (N.D. Cal. 1984), that--
       (1) overturned the conviction of Fred Korematsu;
       (2) concluded that, at the time that senior Government 
     officials presented their case before the Supreme Court of 
     the United States in 1944, the senior Government officials 
     knew there was no factual basis for the claim of military 
     necessity for the Civil Exclusion Order; and
       (3) stated that although the decision of the Supreme Court 
     of the United States in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 
     214 (1944), remains on the pages of United States legal and 
     political history, ``[a]s 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 
     incarceration of Japanese Americans under Executive Order 
     9066 (7 Fed. Reg. 1407 (February 25, 1942)), concluded that--
       (1) the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States 
     in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), is 
     overruled by the court of history;
       (2) a grave personal injustice was done to the United 
     States 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
       (3) the exclusion, removal, and detention of United States 
     citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry was 
     motivated largely by ``racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, 
     and a failure of political leadership'';

       Whereas the overturning of the conviction of Fred Korematsu 
     and the findings of the 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. 4211 et 
     seq.) to request a Presidential apology and the symbolic 
     payment of compensation to people of Japanese ancestry who 
     lost liberty or property due to discriminatory actions of the 
     Federal Government;
       Whereas, on August 10, 1988, President Reagan signed the 
     Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. 4211 et seq.), 
     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, ``[i]n 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 by--
       (1) speaking out against racial discrimination and 
     violence; and
       (2) cautioning the Federal Government against repeating 
     mistakes of the past that singled out individuals for 
     heightened scrutiny on the basis of race, ethnicity, 
     nationality, or religion;
       Whereas, on March 30, 2005, Fred Korematsu died at the age 
     of 86 in Marin County, California; and
       Whereas Fred Korematsu is a role model for all people of 
     the United States who love the United States and the promises 
     contained in the Constitution of the United States, and the 
     strength and perseverance of Fred Korematsu serve as an 
     inspiration for all people who strive for equality and 
     justice: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) honors Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu for his--
       (A) loyalty and patriotism to the United States;
       (B) work to advance the civil rights and civil liberties of 
     all people of the United States; and
       (C) dedication to justice and equality;
       (2) recognizes January 30, 2018, as ``Fred Korematsu Day of 
     Civil Liberties and the Constitution''; and
       (3) denounces any effort to discriminate against any 
     individual based on the national origin or religion of the 
     individual.

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