I haven’t had a whole lot of time to post recently. As before though, I intend to continue posting responses to readings and films (most of which are assigned for the class, Asian-American Literature). These will be shorter posts, and I just wanted to start them off with this particular note, which I think all citizens of every culture need to be aware of:
We recently watched the PBS Documentary Of Civil Rights and Wrongs: The Fred Korematsu Story, which follows one particular American’s fight against the internment of Japanese Americans following the Pearl Harbor attack. Mr. Korematsu and a couple of ACLU lawyers took his case up to the Supreme Court at the time, which capitulated to unsubstantiated accusations from a General in the Army and upheld the internment process. Mr. Korematsu’s case went forgotten for decades, but the Supreme Court had set a precedent. This precedent still stands, as a retrial of the case based on new evidence of government cover-up only made it to the District-level courts, which ruled in his favor.
Although the case against him was overturned, and the Supreme Court precedent thoroughly discredited, it still stands as precedent and may be returned to given a similar situation, only next time it may be Middle-Eastern Americans, or Jewish Americans, or Southern Americans or Californians. The likelihood of the Supreme Court rehearing this case to overturn the original precedent is close to zero, but it is a situation all need to be aware of.