Roles:
Fred Korematsu,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Justice Hugo Black
Justice Frank Murphy
Justice Robert Jackson
Justice 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
Bailiff, Court Audience (Class)
Justice Hugo Black
Fred Korematsu
Narrator: February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.
FDR: Now therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States,
and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of
War, to require all Japanese-Americans in "Military Area No. 1" (the West Coast "exclusion
zone") to report to the Internment Camps.
Narrator: Fred Korematsu was born in 1919, to Japanese parents
living in Oakland, California. He worked in his family nursery
growing up. When General John L. DeWitt, commander of the
Western Defense Area, ordered Japanese-American citizens to
leave their homes, sell their property or abandon it and settle in 1 of
the 10 camps in isolated and sparsely settled states. They were
Executive Order 9066
forced to live in army style barracks under poor living conditions.
He changed his name and claimed to be of Spanish and Hawaiian heritage. He was captured
on May 30, 1942, and was tried and convicted in federal court. Fred Korematsu was grabbed
by police on an East Bay street corner, handcuffed and taken to jail. His crime -- defying
President Franklin Roosevelt's order that American citizens of Japanese descent report to
internment camps. Newspaper headlines read:
Audience (class): "Jap Spy Arrested in San Leandro''
Narrator: Korematsu contested his confinement, to no avail. His court case went to the highest court
of the land, the Supreme Court.
Scene 1 – the Court Room
Baliff: Everyone, please rise. Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth?
Korematsu: I do.
Fred Korematsu
Baliff: Please be seated.
Prosecutor: Mr. Korematsu is it true that you defied Executive Order 9066 that says the secretary of
war is to evacuate and relocate “all or any persons” in order to provide “protection against espionage
and against sabotage to national defense” meaning Japanese Americans?
Korematsu: Yes, but it is unconstitutional, it is unconstitutional to imprison Japanese Americans
because that defies us of our 5th Amendment.
Audience (class): Due Process
Narrator: Korematsu cleared his throat and nervously said, “the 5th Amendment states in our bill of
rights says, No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a
presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.” Korematsu looked to his left and right and said,
Korematsu: I am a person in the United States and I do not see a grand jury or due process.
Narrator: 5th Amendment also says that you cannot deny life, liberty, or property without just
compensation. Executive Order 9066 has done all of those things to Japanese Immigrants and
Japanese American citizens: men, women, children, and the elderly.
Audience (class): Standing Ovation <stands up and clap>
Scene 2 – Supreme Court Judges Discussions
Justice Murphy: I believe that Congress and FDR do not have the power to relocate all of these
Japanese-American citizens without due process. For example, in Britain they set up 112 hearing
boards, which examined in 6 months, 74000 German and Austrians without having to place them in
relocation camps. Japanese deserve equal protection of the law as guaranteed by the 5 th
amendment.
Justice Jackson: I agree, I believe that it is almost “the legalization of racism,” we are fighting
Germans and Italians also, but we are not relocating all of them. I am sure we will end up relocating
112,000 Japanese in relocation camps, but by the end of the war 11,000 Germans and 12,000
Italians will be forced to move or relocate, that is nearly 100,000 less than the Japanese-Americans,
why?
Justice Hugo: Gentlemen, you have to remember we recently upheld the courts decision in
Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) that said it was legal to set a curfew for persons of Japanese
ancestry living on the West Coast. How is this different?
Scene 3 – The Decision
Baliff: The honorable Justices have decided
Justice Murphy: <stand up> Not Constitutional <sit down>
Justice 2: <stand up> Constitiutional <sit down>
Justice 3: <stand up> Constitiutional <sit down>
Justice Murphy
Justice 4: <stand up> Constitiutional <sit down>
Justice 5: <stand up> Constitiutional <sit down>
Justice Jackson: <stand up> Not Constitutional <sit down>
Justice 7: <stand up> Constitiutional <sit down>
Justice Jackson
Justice 8: <stand up> Not Constitutional <sit down>.
Justice Hugo: It is not beyond the war powers of Congress and the
president to exclude those of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast
area. Hardships are part of war…citizenship has its responsibilities as
well as its privileges and in time of war the burden is always heavier. It
is for military urgency and the need for action is great and the time is
short. Therefore, the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the
exclusion, removal, and detention, arguing that it is alloweable to deny
rights of a racial group when there is a "pressing public necessity. In
the court case of Fred Korematsu v. United States we have voted in
Justice Hugo Black
favor of the United States, executive order 9066 IS constitutional.
Narrator: That was it…the bailiff hauled Korematsu to an interment camp.
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