I just had a little thought that I wanted to share with everyone today. OK maybe it wasn't such a little thought. I posted a couple of months ago about my determination to go to more things at school and take advantage of this opportunity to see some neat stuff while I was in law school. I took that opportunity again today. Today the Japanese law society put on a video and a panel about Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American. Many of you have probably heard this story.
Fred Korematsu lived in the Bay area when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and he was arrested for not going to the internment camps when the government rounded up all of the Japanese Americans on the west coast. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and he lost. I watched this video today and it was nerd chill central. This is a really sad story. The Japanese were rounded up, they lost over $2 billion in property, and our nation got a huge black eye. I will be the first to tell you that there are always two sides to every story, in this case it was the cowardice of the justice department that is the other side. I am not necessarily talking about the Supreme Court or the President, but a few people that made it so the Supreme Court could not do their job. Don't get me wrong, the Supreme Court will have to answer to this someday, but there is more to the story. Forty years after his conviction Fred Korematsu got the chance to change his story, and that was mostly what the movie was about.
A Professor of law at UC San Diego found some documents from the trial used by the lawyers that represented the government in Fred's case. These documents basically admitted that the lawyer's knew that the statements made by the Army about Japanese American espionage were untrue, and that they were making a false claim to the Supreme Court, but for whatever reason, they did nothing. These documents also included some from the F.B.I. that stated that in all the cases of Japanese American espionage that they had conducted, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing. 110,000 Americans, who happened to be of Japanese descent went to prison, and America did nothing. Fred's conviction was overturned forty years after the fact by a court in California, using the documents the law Professor had found. That is still only half the story. The real story is how Fred and the other Japanese American people handled this terrible injustice.
Fred was never bitter, he was an American and never stopped saying that he was right, no matter what his government did to him. Very few Japanese Americans even protested the internment because they did not want to go against their government. These were exactly the people that we should never have put in prison, people of character and courage.
After the Japanese Americans were interned the government added insult to injury by asking for some of the young men that they had put in prison with no trial or evidence to go fight for their country, and you know what? Some of them did. They put what they, their families, and their people had suffered behind them and they acted like true Americans, even though they weren't being treated like them. The Army, afraid to send them to the pacific theater, sent them to the bloodbath that was Europe. Not only did these men serve their country, they served with distinction. In a racially segregated unit made up of Japanese Americans, they became the most highly decorated unit in U.S. military history. Their story is now legend, "They fought in seven major campaigns in Europe, made two beachhead assaults and captured a submarine. In France, they liberated Bruyeres, and rescued the ``Lost Battalion'' -- 275 Texas infantrymen who had been trapped inside German territory for almost a week." You can read their story here. They were not only Americans, they were willing to prove it.
These are some great stories. Fred's daughter and three of the lawyers that worked to get his case overturned were at the panel, and it was incredible to hear their stories. Their stories mean nothing, however, if we do not learn from them and act on that knowledge. Some people think that these problems have been put behind us, not so. We are much too quick to see people as the enemy. Fred's daughter told a story of how Fred has been visiting The University of Michigan and while he was getting a tour of the library a group of students came up and surrounded him and thanked him for his courage. They were Arabic students, Americans. I think that it is really hard to balance National Safety and individual rights and all that. I don't know what the solution is, but sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease. If we give up our freedom and protection of basic rights like right to a trial and free speech, what will it even mean to be American? I am just saying that we all need to take opportunities to do what we know is right. It might not be in any sort of context like civil rights, or whatever, but we cannot be afraid to speak up for what we know is right. Anytime, anyplace. It ain't easy, but it's not easy to live in an old horse stall when you're kicked out of your home because of where your parents are from either.
8 comments:
you're going to be such a great lawyer.
What an awesome post and such a neat opportunity for you.
Matt, I saw that movie last year and thank you for your post reminding me about it. I can't remember if it was a unanimous Supreme Court decision, but if it was (it may have been, because I can't seem to remember that there was even a dissent), I think that is especially sad. Honestly, I have to say that if we think we want to stand up for the big, important things like that, it takes daily practice. I was at a meeting the other day and I put my two cents in even though it was scary and it wasn't a very popular view and it didn't change the outcome of the meeting. But I hope it strengthened my courage so that some day when I have to do something like the justices should have done, I can do it even though it is hard. Thanks for such an inspiring post! I'm so glad you are finding things at school to be inspired about--that's the law school experience I wish for every law student.
Talk about nerd chills, I actually have a lump in my throat (it's not just an expression!) Thanks for such an inspiring post!
Thanks for the great story, Matt. I hadn't heard about him. Like Tracy says, we have to practice standing tall. One thing you are too young to know, and even I am too young to know first hand, is how much fear and hate Americans at that time felt toward Japan and her people. Many of that generation could not stand to hear Japan talked about. Everyone knew at least one person killed at Pearl Harbor.
Thanks for your post Mom, it is always good to remember that hindsight is 20/20. As difficult as it is sometimes I feel we need to judge people in the context of their times but still applaud those who went against the status quo.
Yeah, U of Michigan rocks! Actually, this soberly reminds me of my first ever boss. He was an American Croatian and this old conservative, stuck-in-his-ways fogey. We were talking about 911 and how to deal with safety issues and Arabs in America. His comment: put them all in internment camps! I could hardly believe it, but he really thought that we should round up all the Arabs in America and put them in camps.
There was a teacher at my elementary school who was in the internment camps. I knew a few people growing up whose parents or grandparents were in the internment camps. It is a really sad story made worse by the people who "took care" of their property by destroying it or leaving it to waste.
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