Goodbye, Mr. Korematsu
Mar. 31st, 2005 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoThe Seattle Times reports that Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu has died. Korematsu was one of a handful of US citizens who practiced civil disobedience in the face of the US government's internment orders for Americans of Japanese descent during World War II.
His case, Korematsu v. US, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), stands today as one of the darkest moments of the Supreme Court's history. A moment when expediency and hysteria were allowed to trump the birthrights of Americans.
The last of the Nisei who lived through the camps are dying. If Tom Brokaw was right about a "greatest generation," then I would say that the Nisei who fought so bravely and worked so hard for their country even as their families were in the camps were probably the most patriotic of all.
If you want to learn more about the internment, I recommend Peter Irons' book, Justice at War... Which, as it happens, I reviewed on Amazon back in 2001.
His case, Korematsu v. US, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), stands today as one of the darkest moments of the Supreme Court's history. A moment when expediency and hysteria were allowed to trump the birthrights of Americans.
The last of the Nisei who lived through the camps are dying. If Tom Brokaw was right about a "greatest generation," then I would say that the Nisei who fought so bravely and worked so hard for their country even as their families were in the camps were probably the most patriotic of all.
If you want to learn more about the internment, I recommend Peter Irons' book, Justice at War... Which, as it happens, I reviewed on Amazon back in 2001.
