Korematsu v. US; a refresher that applies today (unfortunately)

I attended a seminar on Korematsu v. US yesterday and it was a great reminder of how racial hysteria leads to the abandonment of civil rights.

In Korematsu v. US, the Supreme Court in 1944 affirmed the conviction of Mr. Korematsu for defying the order to surrender and be placed in a concentration camp; solely because he was of Japanese descent, notwithstanding he was a US citizen.

In 1984 his conviction was vacated and his innocence established in Korematsu v. US, 584 F.Supp.1406 because the justification for the Japanese concentration camps was found to have been entirely faked and the Govt. knowingly provided that misleading information to the Supreme Court.

Sadly this threat is rearing its ugly head 70+ years later as our country is on the verge of suspending civil rights to those perceived, without any evidence, of being sympathizers with our enemies, simply because of the color of their skin and/or their choice of religion. Not necessarily concentration camps, but accusing others without any basis. We need to remember the lesson that Mr. Korematsu taught us.

 

Japanese concentration camps was found to have been entirely faked

Smallpotatoes is on it.

 

I believe that the Japanese believed they were in concentration camps.

 

The California Nisei were rounded up, their homes and businesses confiscated. They were put in camps with guards and barbed wire around them. They were concentration camps... not Nazi style, no, but concentration camps nonetheless. Contrast this to Americans of German extraction, who may have been viewed with some suspicion but did not get anything like the same treatment.

Germans are not brown people, and they don't stand out in the crowd the way Asians do.

 

Japanese are brown people? My skin is darker than most of the Japanese-Americans I know.

 

If we had built a wall around Pearl Harbor, everything would have been great.

 

Yeah, until the Luftwaffe flew over the walls to bomb it.

 

Well then our impenetrable protective dome would have saved us.