Petitioner
Toyosaburo Korematsu
Respondent
United States
Petitioner's Claim
That the military orders which sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II were not justified by military necessity.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioner
Wayne M. Collins
Chief Lawyer for Respondent
Charles Fahy, U.S. Solicitor General
Justices for the Court
Hugo Lafayette Black (writing for the Court), William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, Stanley Forman Reed, Wiley Blount Rutledge, Harlan Fiske Stone
Justices Dissenting
Robert H. Jackson, Frank Murphy, Owen Josephus Roberts
Place
Washington, D.C.
Date of Decision
18 December 1944
Decision
The orders were upheld as a valid exercise of the war powers the Constitutiongrants to Congress.
Significance
Korematsu is the only case in Supreme Court history in which the Court, using a strict test for possible racial discrimination, upheld a restriction on civil liberties. The case has since been severely criticized for sanctioning racism.
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese Empire brought the United States into the Second World War by attacking the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,043 Americans and destroying both aircraft and warships. The next day, Congress declared war on Japan, which in effect brought the United States into conflict with the other members of the tripartite alliance, Germanyand Italy.
On 27 March 1942, pursuant to an act of Congress, the U.S. military issued anorder prohibiting persons of Japanese descent from leaving the West Coast region. On 3 May 1942, this order was modified by another, directing that suchpersons be excluded from the area. The effect of these orders was the forcedinternment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were first obliged to report to assembly centers, from which they were shipped to inland government camps.
Toyosaburo Korematsu, who went by the name Fred, was an American-born descendant of Japanese immigrants who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He wasrejected for military service for health reasons, but at the time the internment began, he had a good job in the defense industry and a non-Japanese girlfriend. Instead of obeying the military orders, he moved inland from the Bay area, underwent some minor facial surgery, changed his name, and attempted topass as Mexican American. Eventually, he was arrested, convicted, paroled, and sent to a relocation camp in Utah. After his efforts to challenge his conviction in the lower federal courts proved fruitless, he took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Justice Black's opinion, which was joined by five other justices, is often cited for its proposition that "all legal restrictions which curtail the civilrights of a single racial group are immediately suspect . . . Courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny." Although the "strict scrutiny" test would become the standard for judging laws based on racial categories, in thiscase Justice Black did not find that Fred Korematsu had been discriminated against because of his ethnicity. Instead, Black and a majority of his fellow justices found that Korematsu had disobeyed orders that were justified by military necessity. The Court majority did not question the military's claim thatthe large number of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast threatened national security, and that the only means of reducing this threat was temporarily to exclude the entire group. The orders, which were issued pursuant to an act of Congress, were a valid exercise of constitutional war powers, the Court reasoned. Korematsu had clearly disobeyed these orders.
Korematsu Dissenters Question Constitutionality of Detentions
Justice Black declined to consider the question of legality or morality of the internment camps. The three dissenters--Justices Roberts, Murphy, and Jackson--vigorously attacked this refusal to confront what they regarded as the real issue in the case. Justice Roberts observed that, faced with "the dilemmathat he dare not remain in his home, or voluntarily leave the area, without incurring criminal penalties . . . [Korematsu] did nothing." Justice Jackson added that "Korematsu . . . has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime.It consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived." JusticeMurphy confronted head on the racism inherent in the internment order:
Citing the fact that there had been no imposition of martial law and that four months had elapsed after Pearl Harbor before the first exclusion order hadbeen issued, Murphy questioned the claim of military necessity and dissentedfrom what he called "this legalization of racism."
Jackson did not question the military's authority in making mass arrests, buthe feared the ramifications of a Supreme Court endorsement of the internmentorders:
Korematsu was to provide the standard for judging legislation which isbased on race or which violates fundamental constitutional rights. Black's "rigid scrutiny" became the Court's "strict scrutiny" standard. Korematsu has never been overruled, although in 1980 Congress authorized payments of$20,000 each to survivors of the internment camps.
Related Cases
Japanese American Internment Camps
In the hysteria following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, federal authorities directed resident Japanese Americans to ten prisons, calledinternment camps, operated by the U.S. Justice Department. By July of 1942 more than 112,000 people of Japanese ancestry, approximately 70,000 of them American citizens, had been relocated to the camps where they lived for over two years. Camps were mostly located in bleak desert areas such as Poston and Gila River in Arizona, Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, Amache in Colorado, Minidoka in Idaho, Topaz in the salt flats of Utah, and Heart Mountain inWyoming. Jerome and Rohwer, however, sat in the swampy Mississippi River delta of Arkansas.
The camps were divided into blocks of hastily erected barracks, flimsily partitioned into 20 by 25 foot cubicles to hold on average eight people. Privacywas non-existent. Furnishings included iron cots, straw mattresses, and a stove. Other barracks served as the mess hall, communal kitchen, recreation hall, and bathhouse. There were also laundry rooms and latrines. Winters were very cold, summers hot and dusty.
Although treated as prisoners, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, intime the camps became town-like. Each camp had offices, schools, a hospital,social activities, and a post office.
Sources
Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
Toyosaburo Korematsu
Respondent
United States
Petitioner's Claim
That the military orders which sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II were not justified by military necessity.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioner
Wayne M. Collins
Chief Lawyer for Respondent
Charles Fahy, U.S. Solicitor General
Justices for the Court
Hugo Lafayette Black (writing for the Court), William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, Stanley Forman Reed, Wiley Blount Rutledge, Harlan Fiske Stone
Justices Dissenting
Robert H. Jackson, Frank Murphy, Owen Josephus Roberts
Place
Washington, D.C.
Date of Decision
18 December 1944
Decision
The orders were upheld as a valid exercise of the war powers the Constitutiongrants to Congress.
Significance
Korematsu is the only case in Supreme Court history in which the Court, using a strict test for possible racial discrimination, upheld a restriction on civil liberties. The case has since been severely criticized for sanctioning racism.
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese Empire brought the United States into the Second World War by attacking the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,043 Americans and destroying both aircraft and warships. The next day, Congress declared war on Japan, which in effect brought the United States into conflict with the other members of the tripartite alliance, Germanyand Italy.
On 27 March 1942, pursuant to an act of Congress, the U.S. military issued anorder prohibiting persons of Japanese descent from leaving the West Coast region. On 3 May 1942, this order was modified by another, directing that suchpersons be excluded from the area. The effect of these orders was the forcedinternment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They were first obliged to report to assembly centers, from which they were shipped to inland government camps.
Toyosaburo Korematsu, who went by the name Fred, was an American-born descendant of Japanese immigrants who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He wasrejected for military service for health reasons, but at the time the internment began, he had a good job in the defense industry and a non-Japanese girlfriend. Instead of obeying the military orders, he moved inland from the Bay area, underwent some minor facial surgery, changed his name, and attempted topass as Mexican American. Eventually, he was arrested, convicted, paroled, and sent to a relocation camp in Utah. After his efforts to challenge his conviction in the lower federal courts proved fruitless, he took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Justice Black's opinion, which was joined by five other justices, is often cited for its proposition that "all legal restrictions which curtail the civilrights of a single racial group are immediately suspect . . . Courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny." Although the "strict scrutiny" test would become the standard for judging laws based on racial categories, in thiscase Justice Black did not find that Fred Korematsu had been discriminated against because of his ethnicity. Instead, Black and a majority of his fellow justices found that Korematsu had disobeyed orders that were justified by military necessity. The Court majority did not question the military's claim thatthe large number of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast threatened national security, and that the only means of reducing this threat was temporarily to exclude the entire group. The orders, which were issued pursuant to an act of Congress, were a valid exercise of constitutional war powers, the Court reasoned. Korematsu had clearly disobeyed these orders.
Korematsu Dissenters Question Constitutionality of Detentions
Justice Black declined to consider the question of legality or morality of the internment camps. The three dissenters--Justices Roberts, Murphy, and Jackson--vigorously attacked this refusal to confront what they regarded as the real issue in the case. Justice Roberts observed that, faced with "the dilemmathat he dare not remain in his home, or voluntarily leave the area, without incurring criminal penalties . . . [Korematsu] did nothing." Justice Jackson added that "Korematsu . . . has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime.It consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived." JusticeMurphy confronted head on the racism inherent in the internment order:
No adequate reason is given for the failure to treat these Japanese Americans on an individual basis by holding investigations and hearings to separate the loyal from the disloyal, as was done in the case of persons of Germanand Italian ancestry.
Citing the fact that there had been no imposition of martial law and that four months had elapsed after Pearl Harbor before the first exclusion order hadbeen issued, Murphy questioned the claim of military necessity and dissentedfrom what he called "this legalization of racism."
Jackson did not question the military's authority in making mass arrests, buthe feared the ramifications of a Supreme Court endorsement of the internmentorders:
[O]nce a judicial opinion rationalizes such an order to show that it conforms to the Constitution, or rather rationalizes the Constitution to show that the Constitution sanctions such an order, the Court for alltime has validated the principle of racial discrimination in criminal procedure and of transplanting American citizens. The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forwarda plausible claim of an urgent need.
Korematsu was to provide the standard for judging legislation which isbased on race or which violates fundamental constitutional rights. Black's "rigid scrutiny" became the Court's "strict scrutiny" standard. Korematsu has never been overruled, although in 1980 Congress authorized payments of$20,000 each to survivors of the internment camps.
Related Cases
- Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81 (1943).
- Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, 323 U.S. 283 (1944).
Japanese American Internment Camps
In the hysteria following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, federal authorities directed resident Japanese Americans to ten prisons, calledinternment camps, operated by the U.S. Justice Department. By July of 1942 more than 112,000 people of Japanese ancestry, approximately 70,000 of them American citizens, had been relocated to the camps where they lived for over two years. Camps were mostly located in bleak desert areas such as Poston and Gila River in Arizona, Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, Amache in Colorado, Minidoka in Idaho, Topaz in the salt flats of Utah, and Heart Mountain inWyoming. Jerome and Rohwer, however, sat in the swampy Mississippi River delta of Arkansas.
The camps were divided into blocks of hastily erected barracks, flimsily partitioned into 20 by 25 foot cubicles to hold on average eight people. Privacywas non-existent. Furnishings included iron cots, straw mattresses, and a stove. Other barracks served as the mess hall, communal kitchen, recreation hall, and bathhouse. There were also laundry rooms and latrines. Winters were very cold, summers hot and dusty.
Although treated as prisoners, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, intime the camps became town-like. Each camp had offices, schools, a hospital,social activities, and a post office.
Sources
Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
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