The Hirabayashi conviction and this one thus rest on the same 1942 Congressional Act,, and the same basic executive and military orders, all of which orders were aimed at the twin dangers of espionage and sabotage. United States, we sustained a conviction obtained for violation of the curfew order. As is the case with the exclusion order here, that prior curfew order was designed as a “protection against espionage and against sabotage.” In Kiyoshi Hirabayashi v.
#Korematsu v united states 1944 series#
One of the series of orders and proclamations, a curfew order, which like the exclusion order here was promulgated pursuant to Executive Order 9066, subjected all persons of Japanese ancestry in prescribed West Coast military areas to remain in their residences from 8 p.m. issued after we were at war with Japan, declared that “the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities.” Pressing public necessity may sometimes justify the existence of such restrictions racial antagonism never can.Įxecutive Order No. It is to say that courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny. That is not to say that all such restrictions are unconstitutional. It should be noted, to begin with, that all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group are immediately suspect. No question was raised as to petitioner’s loyalty to the United States. Army, which directed that after May 9, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry should be excluded from that area. 34 of the Commanding General of the Western Command, U.S. The petitioner, an American citizen of Japanese descent, was convicted in a federal district court for remaining in San Leandro, California, a “Military Area”, contrary to Civilian Exclusion Order No. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. The majority opinion, written by Justice Hugo Black, rejected the plaintiff’s discrimination argument and upheld the government’s right to relocate citizens in the face of wartime emergency. Supreme Court, in a sharply divided 6–3 decision, upheld Korematsu’s conviction in late 1944. Korematsu had been arrested by the FBI for failing to report for relocation and was convicted in federal court in September 1942. Korematsu, a Nisei (an American-born person whose parents were born in Japan). One of the most important of the legal challenges to the internment policy was Korematsu v. In an atmosphere of hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials at all levels of the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Supreme Court Upholds InternmentĪmerica fought World War II to preserve freedom and democracy, yet that same war featured the greatest suppression of civil liberties in the nation’s history. Justice Jackson dissented, arguing that the exclusion order legitimized racism that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.Korematsu v. Justice Frankfurter concurred, writing that the “martial necessity arising from the danger of espionage and sabotage” warranted the military’s evacuation order. Black argued that the validation of the military's decision by Congress merited even more deference. The Court relied heavily on a 1943 decision, Hirabayashi v. and particularly the West Coast (the region nearest Japan) secure from invasion. The majority found that the Executive Order did not show racial prejudice but rather responded to the strategic imperative of keeping the U.S.
In an opinion written by Justice Black, the Court ruled that the evacuation order violated by Korematsu was valid.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed Korematsu's conviction.ĭid the President and Congress go beyond their war powers by implementing exclusion and restricting the rights of Americans of Japanese descent?
He responded by arguing that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment. Korematsu was arrested and convicted of violating the order. A Japanese-American man living in San Leandro, Fred Korematsu, chose to stay at his residence rather than obey the order to relocate. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor. government decided to require Japanese-Americans to move into relocation camps as a matter of national security. In response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, the U.S.
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