Fred Korematsu and His Fight for Justice

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, uprooting some 120,000 Japanese-Americans – two-thirds of them American citizens – from their homes on the West Coast and forcing them into concentration camps. Fred Korematsu refused to go. He was arrested, and convicted of violating the Executive Order and related military proclamations. He appealed his conviction first to the Ninth Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction, upholding the Executive Order. In 1983, nearly forty years later, the federal court in San Francisco vacated Korematsu’s conviction after evidence was uncovered showing that the government had suppressed evidence that undermined its assertions before the Supreme Court.

This presentation by members of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, including Cadwalader attorneys and the Honorable Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, will tell the story of Fred Korematsu and his fight for justice through narration, reenactment of court proceedings, and historic documents and photographs. For this presentation, we will be joined by Fred’s daughter, Karen Korematsu.

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Registration & Networking
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm: Reenactment & Discussion
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm: Reception

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
200 Liberty Street
New York City

CLE credit will be offered.

For more information about this event, please contact La Tonya Brooks at latonya.brooks@cwt.com.