Korematsu v. United States

Korematsu v. United States, (1944) Supreme Court decision arising from the 1942 military order forcing West Coast Japanese Americans into “assembly centers” from which they were interned in “relocation camps.” Fred Korematsu of San Francisco, an American‐born citizen of Japanese ancestry, attempted to enlist when World War II began but was rejected for medical reasons. Working in a defense job when the internment began, he moved, changed his name, and claimed to be Mexican American. He was arrested, sentenced to five years in prison, immediately paroled, and interned in the camp at Topaz, Utah. By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black conceded that “all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group are immediately suspect” and required “the most rigid scrutiny.” Further, Black questioned the army's contention that the impossibility of distinguishing between loyal and disloyal Japanese Americans justified “the temporary exclusion of the entire group.” Nevertheless, he argued that the internment policy reflected legitimate military considerations, not “antagonism to those of Japanese ancestry.” To blame the case on “racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers,” Black went on, “merely confuses the issue.” Since Korematsu was charged only with remaining in a restricted area and failing to report to the assembly center, the Court did not explicitly address the constitutionality of forced relocation.

Justices Owen Roberts, Frank Murphy, and Robert Jackson dissented. The internment program that had ensnared Korematsu did not really rest on military grounds, argued Murphy, but “mainly upon questionable racial and sociological grounds not ordinarily within the realm of expert military judgment.” Japanese Americans should have been treated “on an individual basis,” Murphy argued, through “investigations and hearings to separate the loyal from the disloyal.”
See also Asian Americans; Incarceration of Japanese Americans; Racism; World War II: Domestic Effects.

Bibliography

Roger Daniels , The Decision to Relocate the Japanese Americans, 1985.
Peter Trans , Justice at War, 1993.

Paul Finkelman