Civil Rights Perspective In 1942 during World War II, a young man by the name of Fred Korematsu was arrested near San Francisco, California and taken into custody by the military police. An American citizen, Korematsu was charged with violating the evacuation order of military commander General DeWitt, authorized under an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February of 1942. Korematsu was convicted in federal court and subsequently sent to an internment camp in Utah. He appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court conviction. Korematsu then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided his and two related cases [Hirabayashi v. U.S., 1943; Ex parte Endo, 1944] that, together, have become known as the “Japanese American cases.” By a 6-3 vote, the Court upheld the government’s evacuation order in Korematsu v. U.S., 323 U.S. 214 (1944). Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black stated: In light of the principles we announced in the Hirabayashi case, we are unable to conclude that it was beyond the war power of Congress and the Executive to exclude those of Japanese ancestry from the West coast war area ….” Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire …” During the 1980s, legal historian Peter Irons—as a result of his research on the wartime internment cases—collaborated with a team of mostly Japanese American lawyers to obtain, in federal district court, a reversal of Korematsu’s conviction (as well as of two other Japanese Americans convicted in the related cases). In 1998, President Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the National Medal of Freedom. Eric Fournier’s film documents the story of Fred Korematsu, an 'ordinary' man who demonstrated extraordinary courage and resilience. The film moves from the wartime setting to his arrest, legal representation by the ACLU of Northern California, the renewed legal challenges in the 1980s, and to his recent speeches about the case and his experiences. The film highlights an effective mix of the oral recollections of Korematsu and family members, footage of life in the internment camps, commentary by Peter Irons about the constitutional significance of the case and the legal strategies employed, an interview with the federal district court judge who reversed his conviction in 1983, the observations of Japanese American scholars about the case and the internment, and the White House ceremony at which Korematsu received the Medal. This film can be used in courses on constitutional law and constitutional history, legal history, civil rights, law and politics, law and race, and related subjects. A set of discussion questions and a bibliography of print and web resources are included in this Guide to facilitate the introduction and use of the film. Home | Perspective | Discussion Questions Web Resources | Books | Purchase the Film