Korematsu v United States

Issue-Internment of Japanese Americans

Japanese-American Internment

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans

questioned the loyalty of Japanese Americans, fearing they
may act as spies or help Japan invade the U.S.

The Wartime Relocation Agency (WRA) forced

approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans to relocate
to inland camps, living in crowded barracks behind
barbed wire.

Identify the Problem

Who was involved?
What happened?
Where did it happen?
When did it happen?
Why did it happen?

Facts of the Case

Japanese bombed US naval base at Pearl
Harbor
The United States was fearful of another attack.
As a form of security, president Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed a executive order that placed
Japanese and Japanese American citizens into
interment camps.
Fred Korematsu was a Japanese American, who
had claimed to be Mexican American in order
to avoid the camps

Constitutional Issue/Question before

the Supreme Court
Whether
Executive Order #9066 of 1942
violated Korematsus Fourteenth
Amendment right to equal protection
of the law and the Fifth Amendment
right to life, liberty, and property;
and whether, because of the special
circumstance of the world war,
Congress or the President had the
power to violate Korematsus

Majority Opinion
WRITTEN BY JUSTICE HUGO BLACK
Justice Hugo Black delivered his opinion
to the courts, saying that any member
who is not originally of American decent
is and will always be "suspect" and must
be treated with the highest of security.
He argued that the internment camps for
the Japanese were not unconstitutional,
but simply a necessary precaution.

Dissenting Opinion
ROBERT JACKSON
Justice Robert Jackson sided with Fred
Korematsu in the Supreme Court,
observing that there was no internment
camps or ill behavior being giving to those
Americans who are of German or Italian
decent, both of whom America was in a
war with at the time. He ruled the
treatment the Japanese Americans to be
unconstitutional.

Korematsu v. U.S.

1. Why did
Korematsu refuse to
obey the evacuation
order?
2. Do you think the
cartoon is on the
side of the US
government or
Korematsus ? Why
Japanese American Internment (U.S. Govt Film)
Korematsu Information

This Is the Enemy

Prisoner of My Country

Kenji

Gather Evidence
Why was Japanese-American Internment
necessary?

Why was Japanese-American Internment

unnecessary?

December 7, 1941

CASUALTIES
2,408 KILLED - 1,178 WOUNDED = 3,586 TOTAL
NOTE: Many more were known to have received
wounds from shrapnel and other flying debris
that didn't receive hospitalization in the already
overcrowded medical facilities and no records
were kept of their treatment.

Executive Order 9066

Determine the Causes

Attack on Pearl Harbor
Anti-Japanese Sentiment
Executive Order 9066
For each of the above events, answer the following
questions:
Who was involved?
What happened?
Where did it happen?
When did it happen?
Why did it happen?

Evaluate the Policy

Use the link to evaluate the American relocation
policy. Was the government justified in placing
Japanese-Americans in internment camps?
Yes
No
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
Explain your position on whether or not the
government was justified in placing JapaneseAmericans in internment camps.