Portrait of Fred Korematsu Unveiled, February 2, 2012
The journey to justice is often complex and arduous. After the prolonged internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War, more than forty years passed before the United States government apologized for the internment of more than 120,000 citizens. Fred Korematsu, a young welder living in Oakland, California, was one of many Japanese Americans caught in what the United States government considered to be a security measure necessary after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
Korematsu challenged the government’s right to detain American citizens under President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, but lost his case in 1944. The legal protest was dormant until 1983, when Korematsu appealed to have the case reopened and was subsequently given a favorable judgment by the Supreme Court. Ultimately, thanks to Korematsu’s courageous and persistent stand, surviving victims of the internment were awarded $20,000 each.
Karen Korematsu, Fred Korematsu’s daughter, has given the National Portrait Gallery two photos that survived from the period before the internment. NPG has just placed those images on display in its “The Struggle for Justice” gallery. One is a portrait of Fred Korematsu, circa 1940, while the other is a photograph of several Korematsu family members in their nursery, circa 1939. Because the citizens who were forced into these camps were allowed to bring a limited number of possessions with them, many photos from the period prior to the internment were among the cultural possessions lost in the process.
“My grandfather took these photographs and hid them in the rafters of the packing house next to the flower nursery. . . . We felt very fortunate that when my family returned, the photographs were still there,” Karen Korematsu noted at the dedication, adding, “We’re very fortunate they are here today; these represent 120,000 Japanese American people who were interned.”
“I am delighted that these photographs will reside in the museum’s exhibition ‘The Struggle for Justice,’” said Martin Sullivan, director of the museum. “Korematsu’s courageous advocacy in the courts on behalf of interned Japanese Americans was essential to ending legislated segregation.”
Among those present at the dedication was former United States Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, who said, “We are eternally grateful to Fred for his act of defiance in 1942 and for his determination in the pursuit of justice.”
