From Internment to Interment

Or

Korematsu v. Death

(Props to Craig)

Fred Korematsu, who challenged the legality of the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans in government camps during World War II, has died at 86. Korematsu refused to report for resettlement to his designated internment camp, was arrested and convicted of violating the order, a case that was ultimately appealed to the Supreme Court. In the exclamation point of one of the darkest periods in recent U.S. history, a period that would do well with further scrutiny given the current climate, Korematsu was denied the Hollywood ending when the Court upheld the conviction, in what is now viewed as one of the worst rulings in its history. The conviction was finally overturned almost 40 years later, and Korematsu worked to secure an apology and reparations for internment camp survivors and their families in 1988. His vindication was completed in 1998 when he was honored by President Clinton with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.