No person shall be held to answer for

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

From Lt. Gen. J. L. De. Witt's letter of transmittal to the Chief of Staff, U. S. Army, June 5, 1943, of his Final Report; Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast The evacuation was impelled by military necessity. The security of the Pacific Coast continues to require the exclusion of Japanese from the area now prohibited to them and will so continue as long as that military necessity exists. The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor by the enemy crippled a major portion of the Pacific Fleet and exposed the West Coast to an attack which could not have been substantially impeded by defensive fleet operations. More than 115, 000 persons of Japanese ancestry resided along the coast and were significantly concentrated near many highly sensitive installations essential to the war effort. Intelligence services records reflected the existence of hundreds of Japanese organizations in California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona which, prior to December 7, 1941, were actively engaged in advancing Japanese war aims. These records also disclosed that thousands of American-born Japanese had gone to Japan to receive their education and indoctrination there and had become rabidly pro-Japanese and then had returned to the United States. Emperor-worshipping ceremonies were commonly held and millions of dollars had flowed into the Japanese imperial war chest from the contributions freely made by Japanese here. The continued presence of a large, unassimilated, tightly knit and racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion along a frontier vulnerable to attack constituted a menace which had to be dealt with. Their loyalties were unknown and time was of the essence. The evident aspirations of the enemy emboldened by his recent successes made it worse than folly to have left any stone unturned in the building up of our defenses. It is better to have had this protection and not to have needed it than to have needed it an not to have had it – as we have learned to our sorrow.

From Lt. Gen. J. L. De. Witt's letter of transmittal to the Chief of Staff, U. S. Army, June 5, 1943, of his Final Report; Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast The evacuation was impelled by military necessity. The security of the Pacific Coast continues to require the exclusion of Japanese from the area now prohibited to them and will so continue as long as that military necessity exists. The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor by the enemy crippled a major portion of the Pacific Fleet and exposed the West Coast to an attack which could not have been substantially impeded by defensive fleet operations. More than 115, 000 persons of Japanese ancestry resided along the coast and were significantly concentrated near many highly sensitive installations essential to the war effort. Intelligence services records reflected the existence of hundreds of Japanese organizations in California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona which, prior to December 7, 1941, were actively engaged in advancing Japanese war aims. These records also disclosed that thousands of American-born Japanese had gone to Japan to receive their education and indoctrination there and had become rabidly pro-Japanese and then had returned to the United States. Emperor-worshipping ceremonies were commonly held and millions of dollars had flowed into the Japanese imperial war chest from the contributions freely made by Japanese here. The continued presence of a large, unassimilated, tightly knit and racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion along a frontier vulnerable to attack constituted a menace which had to be dealt with. Their loyalties were unknown and time was of the essence. The evident aspirations of the enemy emboldened by his recent successes made it worse than folly to have left any stone unturned in the building up of our defenses. It is better to have had this protection and not to have needed it than to have needed it an not to have had it – as we have learned to our sorrow.

It should be noted, to begin with, that all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group are immediately suspect. That is not to say that all such restrictions are unconstitutional. It is to say that courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny. Pressing public necessity may sometimes justify the existence of such restrictions; racial antagonism never can.

Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily, and, finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders — as inevitably it must — determined that they should have the power to do just this.

I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States. All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must, accordingly, be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment, and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

USAAF General Curtis Le. May “There are no innocent Jap civilians. ”

1942: January 25 �At Sikeston, Scott County, Missouri. Cleo Wright, Negro. Charge, attempted criminal assault. Dragged through the streets behind an automobile and body burned. July 13 �At Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas. Willie Vinson, Negro. Charge, suspected of attempted rape. Body dragged through streets behind a speeding automobile to the edge of town and hanged from a cotton gin winch. October 12 �near Paris, Edgar County, Illinois. James Edward Person, Negro. Charge, he was charged with having “molested” people in the community. His body was riddled with bullets. October 12 �At Quitman, Clarke County, Mississippi. Charlie Land Ernest Green, 14 year old Negro boys. Charge, attempted rape. Bodies found hanging from river bridge. October 17 �At Laurel, Jones County, Mississippi. Howard Wash, Negro. Charge, received an automatic life sentence when jury failed to agree upon the punish-ment on a murder charge. Taken from jail and hanged. 1943: January 30 �At Newton, Baker County, Georgia. Robert Hall, Negro. Charge, resisting arrest on charge of theft of truck tire. Severely beaten on January 29 by Sheriff M. Claude Screws, a deputy sheriff and a county policeman. Died early on January 30. June 16 �Near Marianna, Jackson County, Florida. Cellos Harrison, Negro. Charge, killing John Mayo, white filling station operator, in robbery attempt in 1940. Taken from jail by four masked men and clubbed to death. November 7 �Near Camp Ellis, Fulton County, Illinois. Private Holley Willis, Negro soldier. Charge, insulting white women over telephone. Shot to death as he tried to escape from a farm house. 1944: March 26 �At Liberty, Amite County, Mississippi. Rev. Isaac Simmons, Negro. Charge, he was hiring a lawyer to safeguard his title to a debt free farm through which was possibility that an oil vein ran. Taken from his home and shot to death by a mob. November 23 �At Pikeville, Bledsoe County, Tennessee. James Scales, Negro. Charge, murdering wife and daughter of the superintendent of the reforma-tory in which he was confined. Taken from jail and shot to death by a mob.