Fred Korematsu Dies at Age 86 (Fought WWII Japanese Internment)

[RamboLiberal]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/31/national/a133816S72.DTL

Fred Korematsu, who became a symbol of civil rights for challenging the World War II internment orders that sent 120,000 Japanese Americans to government camps, has died. He was 86.

Korematsu died Wednesday of respiratory illness at his daughter's home in Larkspur, said his attorney Dale Minami.

"He had a very strong will," Minami said. "He was like our Rosa Parks. He took an unpopular stand at a critical point in our history."

After finally getting his conviction overturned in the early 1980s for opposing internment orders during the war, Korematsu helped win a national apology and reparations for internment camp survivors and their families in 1988.

He was honored by President Clinton in 1998 with the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls — Plessy, Brown, Parks," Clinton said at the time. "To that distinguished list today we add the name of Fred Korematsu."

I wonder if he said anything about Michelle Malkin's stupid book?

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

1. That was one of the most shameful Supreme Court decisions ever

Bless him for fighting for the civil rights of wrongly interned Japanese-AMERICANS.

[James T. Kirk]

9. And one of the Roosevelt admistration's worst policies.

Absolutely shameful.:-(

[lenidog]

2. He was a courageous man fighting against a shameful act

The most suprising thing I ever learned about the internment that that possibly the most paranoid and suspicous man who ever held power in the US government J. Edgar Hoover was dead set against it.

[Lisa]

3. here's to a true patriot

More about Fred and the other resisters here.

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/conscience/
http://www.resisters.com/index.htm

[JI7]

4. yes, he did write a criticism of Michelle Malkin's book

it should be available online. i will look for it and post it unless someone does it before.

[JI7]

6. here is Korematsu's response to Malkin's pro internment book

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2004/fred_korematsu_racial_profiling.html

[RamboLiberal]

8. Thank you for posting that

I'm saving it. It's a shame that so few will note his passing this crazy day and so few will remember the lessons he tried to teach us.

[JI7]

10. i'm hoping they hold some memorial later on for him

after all the current news about Shiavo, the Pope etc slows down.

and hopefully the media will give it and Korematsu the attention it deserves.

[slor]

5. I wonder if m.malkin is...

smiling about this. The evil bitch probably is.

[bluestateguy]

7. Will Michelle Malkin write a column trashing him?

I'd say the odds are better than even that she will.

[struggle4progress]

11. kick

[psychopomp]

12. RIP Fred Korematsu

Good to see a warrior of his caliber die an old man.

[Moderator]

13. kick to combine

[chlamor]

14. Famed Fighter Against Japanese Internment Dies at 86

RIGHTS-US:
Famed Fighter Against Japanese Internment Dies at 86

William Fisher


NEW YORK (IPS) - The Japanese-American who waited 40 years for justice is dead.

Fred Korematsu, hailed by many as the Rosa Parks (a heroine of the African American civil rights movement) of the Second World War, passed away Wednesday in the Northern California community of Larkspur. He was 86.

The beginning of Korematsu's 40 years started in a jail cell in Oakland, California. It passed through defeat after defeat in U.S. courts all the way to the Supreme Court, and ended with his total exoneration -- and the award of the Presidential Medal of Honor.

In between was one of the most egregious chapters in the history of U.S. civil rights.

In February 1942, following Japan's Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorised the internment of 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry. Citizens and non-citizens alike were shipped off to camps.

But Korematsu refused to surrender. While his parents were sent off to interment, he was arrested, tried, convicted and jailed. In 1944, Roosevelt's order was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=28128