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Support Fred Korematsu Day!
  1. Signatures
    263 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The Governor of CA (+ 1 other)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The Governor of CA
      • Assemblymember Warren Furutani’s office (Leilani Yee)
  2. Created By
    Jenn Fang
    Tucson, AZ
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed Executive Order 9066, which ordered the round-up and imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans along America's West Coast. Families of Japanese Americans -- including both Japanese nationals and their American children -- were herded into temporary internment camps, before they were settled into permanent relocation camps that dotted the deserts of the Southwest. These camps boasted horrendous living conditions: families were forced to live in cramped one-room shacks, surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guard towers with rifles pointed inward. After WWII's end, many of these internees returned home, only to find their houses vandalized and their belongings ransacked or destroyed.

An American citizen who was born in Oakland, California, Fred Korematsu refused to abide by E.O. 9066. In 1942, he was arrested for refusing to report for internment. He was convicted in a federal court for violating a military executive order and forcibly interned at Tanforan temporary internment camp (set up at a former horsetrack) before being relocated to the Topaz camp in Utah. In 1944, Korematsu appealed his case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that E.O. 9066 was "racist". Korematsu v. United States became a landmark case in American legal history, with the Supreme Court ruling that E.O. 9066 was constitutional based on (supposed) military intelligence of Japanese American espionage.

In 1983, Korematsu successfully fought for and received an overturning of his federal conviction of refusing to report for internment. Yet, Korematsu continued to devote his life to fighting for the civil rights of unheard and oppressed minorities.

In 2004, Korematsu commented on racial profiling, saying: "No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy."

Although Fred Korematsu passed away on March 30, 2005, his contributions to American history and civil rights will never be forgotten.

Please sign this petition urging Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign into law a bill that would make January 30th Fred Korematsu Day!

This petition was inspired by the efforts of the Korematsu Institute.

UPDATE: Fred Korematsu Day has been signed into state law in California! Thank you for your efforts!

Recent Signatures

Re: AB 1775 (Furutani) - Request Signature

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I write to request your signature on Assembly Bill 1775, which would establish the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution as a special day of significance.

This special day would help students recognize the importance of preserving civil liberties in the United States via the experience of Fred Korematsu. During World War II, Korematsu refused to comply with Executive Order 9066, which caused the unjust incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans in detention centers. Although his first appeal in the 1940s was denied by the United States Supreme Court, his conviction was overturned forty years later on November 10, 1983.

The Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution both guarantee a right to due process. During World War II, these rights were violated because of ancestry and color when Americans of Japanese ancestry were denied the fundamental right to notice of any criminal charges, the right to attorneys and the right to a trial when they were ordered to live in internment camps.

The decision to overturn the Supreme Court decision in Korematsu’s 1944 conviction is a milestone for modern civil rights. Executive Order 9066 demonstrates a threat to civil liberties in the United States during modern history and serves as a reminder that threats to civil liberties still exist today.

For these reasons, I support AB 1775 and urge you to sign this bill. Thank you for considering this significant legislation.

[Your name]

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