Korematsu v. United States

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942, an executive order was issued that required all persons of Japanese descent to report to assembly centers for it seems, mandatory detention purposes. The case claims that Korematsu stayed in San Leandro, California instead of reporting to the detention center, he was later tried and convicted in a federal district court. It appears as though Korematsu knew of the laws and decided not to abide by it, making him guilty of a misdemeanor and upon being convicted, was liable to pay a fine of up to $5,000 or to be imprisoned for not more than a year.

The argument claimed that the US needed to protect itself from espionage and sabotage for national defense after the Pearl Harbor attack, people of Japanese descent were untrustworthy. Furthermore, the description of an executive order that listed a mandatory curfew that required only people of Japanese ancestry to be in their homes within a certain time frame was ultimately was deemed discriminatory but still served a purpose at the moment because Japanese descendants refused to pay allegiance to the US, while the US military was uncertain of who was on their side versus the Japanese side, sort of like fear.

Conclusively, Korematsu was found guilty of being in a sensitive Military area during the times of war, even though it was his place of residence- he was only allowed to be in the bounds of the Assembly Center. Yet, to order only one group of a particular ancestry who are actually US citizens to report to a concentration camp only based on ancestry without assuring his loyalty to the US’s opposition or enemy- one can argue that his Constitutional rights were violated. Still, opinions of the court say that Korematsu violated a government Military order, even though they were discriminating against a whole population of actual American citizens. Still, it was like the two orders put Japanese Americans in direct violation any which way they proceeded. They were all meant to be captured and placed in a concentration camp or detention center until the American government was ready.

This is relevant to homeland security because it is a direct response to war with Japan, in which the US felt like it needed to defend its national borders, people, government and grounds from espionage, sabotage and any other retaliating forces against them. This reminds me of our war with Mexico where we do not want them on our grounds, so we seem to be containing them at the border because of some fear. Although, thankfully there was no bombing of anyone- it is still similar because we seem to be defending our country’s border from one set of people. We also attempted to ban the travel for people of Arab or Muslim origin from more than one country due to terror attack fears.