In 2010, the Governor of California signed the legislative bill establishing Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on January 30 in perpetuity. It is the first statewide day in U.S. history named after an Asian American. 

The History

President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942 which resulted in the detention, forced removal and incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans.  

In 1942 at the age of 23, Fred Korematsu refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans.  After he was arrested, jailed and convicted of defying the government’s order, he agreed to challenge that conviction and appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court.  In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, finding that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity. 

In the 1980s a legal team re-opened Korematsu’s case by petitioning for a “writ of error coram nobis” meaning that “an error has been committed before us” and in this case referring to an error made before the U.S. courts by federal prosecutors on the part of the government.   

On November 10, 1983, Korematsu’s conviction was overturned by the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California.  It was a pivotal moment in civil rights history – brought about because Fred Korematsu spoke up, not only to clear his own name, but to remedy a wrong done to over 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry. 

Today

SCU has been a co-sponsor with a number of local community organizations to raise awareness and honor the legacy of Fred T. Korematsu.