WHY?
Why did Fred Korematsu do what he did? What led to those events?
On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A boy in Oakland California, known as Fred, was one of the many people greatly impacted by this event.
Fred was the third child of Japanese immigrants, the Korematsus, but since he had been born on American soil, he was a U.S. citizen. Fred's parents owned a flower nursery.
In 1941, Fred was 23 years old and had a job as a docksman and an Italian fiancée named Ida. Ida's parents wanted them to split up; they did not want their daughter to marry a "Jap", but the happy couple didn't care. This wasn’t the first time Fred had experienced discrimination. A previous supervisor had fired him because of his race.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor intensified the discrimination many Japanese immigrants already experienced. When it happened, Fred and Ida were listening to the radio when their program was interrupted. They couldn’t know then that by Febuary 19th, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt would sign Executive Order 9066, which gave the Military the ability to intern people at their discretion. Soon after, notices went up for all Japanese Americans, to pack their bags. They would have to leave the West Coast indefinently.
"... by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States ... I hereby authorize ... the Secretary of War ... whenever he ... deems such action necessary ... to prescribe military areas ... to such extent as he ... may determine ... from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter ... or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions ... the appropriate Military Commander may impose ..."
~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as stated in Executive Order 9066
(Quote courtesy of Our Documents, by Oxford UP)
"A Jap's a Jap. It makes no difference whether he is an American; theoretically he is still a Japanese."
~ Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt
(Quote courtesy of When Justice Failed: The Fred Korematsu Story, by Steven Chin)
Executive Order 9066
(Photo courtesy of the Saint-Louis Post Dispatch)
Roosevelt signing EO9066
(Photo courtesy of John Resig on Twitter)