Voiceover Narration: During World War II, Fred Korematsu was arrested for defying
the order to leave California. He challenged the constitutionality of the order and his
case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In a 6 to 3 decision the Supreme
Court sided with the President's position that during the war it was appropriate to
defer to the military's argument that it was a military necessity to remove Japanese Americans
from the west coast. For decades, Fred Korematsu quietly lived
his life with this conviction on his record. In 1981, 35 years after the Supreme Court
ruling, top secret documents were uncovered in dusty archives that showed government lawyers
hid information from the courts.
PI: And it was perfectly obvious that nobody had ever opened these boxes since they were
initially stored because they were all dusty. No evidence that anybody had ever untied the
string or looked inside. So I decided just to sit down and start going
through them. And I picked out the box that said Korematsu v. United States.
Almost in the first five minutes that I was looking at these records, I found a memo.
And in that memo, which was a memo to the solicitor general who was preparing to argue
the Korematsu case before the Supreme Court in 1944. Ennis said, "We are in possession
of information that shows that the War Department's report on the internment is a lie.
And we have an ethical obligation not to tell a lie to the Supreme Court, and we must decide whether
to correct that record." And looking at that document, I still remember vividly thinking,
"Oh, my God. This is amazing. This is like a smoking gun." Here's a lawyer for the government
about to be, in a case about to be argued before the Supreme Court saying, "We are telling
lies to the Supreme Court."
Voiceover Narration: Information uncovered were reports showing the racist beliefs of
the military commander who ordered the removal, and evidence that there was no military necessity
for a mass removal. Based on this information, Fred Korematsu's conviction of defying the
exclusion order was nullified. In addition, Congress formed a commission to look into
any possible government wrongdoings. In 1983, the congressional commission issued
its report and concluded that indeed, military necessity was not the cause of the mass imprisonment.
Rather, "...the broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice,
war hysteria and a failure of political leadership." Acting upon the recommendations of this commission,
Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 offering an apology and monetary payment
to those incarcerated. President Ronald Reagan signed the act into law but not before he
said these words.
RR: Members of the Congress and distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, we gather here
today to right a grave wrong. More than 40 years ago, shortly after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living in the United States were forcibly
removed from their homes and placed in makeshift internment camps. This action was taken without
trial, without jury. It was based solely on race, for these 120,000 were Americans of
Japanese descent. Yes, the Nation was then at war, struggling
for its survival and it's not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made
mistakes while engaged in that great struggle. Yet we must recognize that the internment
of Japanese Americans was just that: a mistake.
The legislation that I am about to sign provides for a restitution payment to each of the 60,000
surviving Japanese-Americans of the 120,000 who were relocated or detained. Yet no payment
can make up for those lost years. So, what is most important in this bill has less to
do with property than with honor. For here we admit a wrong; here we reaffirm our commitment
as a nation to equal justice under the law.
Voiceover Narration: The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 brought legislative closure to the
unjust forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Over 82,000 Japanese Americans
received an apology and a $20,000 payment in the years following the signing of this
law. For many, the painful memories of the World War II incarceration remain as a reminder
of the fragileness of the Constitution and the importance of safeguarding every American's
civil liberties.
PL: One of the beauties of the Constitution is that it's a document that applies really
without exception. It's not to be applied when it's convenient. It's not to be applied
when it's easy. It's really to be applied when it's hard.
It's at those times where you have to be least willing to really throw away your constitutional
rights, and really hold yourself, as a country, to those constitutional rights.