Fred Korematsu, 1919-2005

Fred Korematsu, of Korematsu v. United States, has died at 86.

In February 1942, 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry ... were ordered out of their homes and into camps following... Pearl Harbor. Korematsu did not turn himself in and was arrested, jailed and convicted of a felony for failing to report for evacuation.

Korematsu was one of several who challenged the constitutionality of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 authorizing internment. His case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court and, in 1944, the court upheld the order. But, as was discovered many years later, the court — and the nation — had been gravely misled about the potential dangers from Japanese-Americans...

President Reagan in 1988 declared the internment a "grave injustice" and signed legislation authorizing reparations of $20,000 each to thousands of surviving internees, including Korematsu. In 1999, President Clinton awarded Korematsu a presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

The full article is here.

(Thank you to Creek Running North for the news.)