For further information on Korematsu's legal battle and the history of the Japanese in America (including their internment experience), browse the following websites.
Library resources for Politics and Policy and their Impact on
People:
Delve
Deeper
This is a suggested listing of fiction and nonfiction
books, videos, and web sites offering more information on issues raised
by this and other POV broadcasts. Topics include civil liberties,
poverty, globalization and Native American themes, including their
relationship to ancestral lands. Delve Deeper into Politics and Policy
and their Impact on People is produced in collaboration with BOOKLIST,
the review journal of the American Library Association (ALA).
To learn more about Fred Korematsu's Supreme Court case,
explore the following websites:
The American Civil Liberties
Union
Founded in 1920, the nonprofit, nonpartisan American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is committed to defending and preserving
the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this
country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. The ACLU of
Northern California (http://www.aclunc.org/) brought Fred Korematsu's
Case to the Supreme Court in 1944. On June 15, 2001, the National ACLU
awarded Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu the Roger N. Baldwin
Medal of Liberty award, which honors individuals who have made lifetime
contributions to the advancement of civil liberties.
In February of 1942, in response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry to leave their homes and relocate to internment camps. The following websites all include primary source documentation of the camps:
Japanese-Americans Internment Camps During World War II
This website has been created by the special Collections
Department, J. Williard Marriott Library, University of Utah and
contains an exhibit on the internment camps of Tule Lake and Topaz. The
Tule Lake Camp was situated in Northern California, while the Topaz
internment camp, where Fred Korematsu stayed, was in Topaz, Utah. Visit
this site to view photographs, documents and artifacts from both the
Tule Lake Camp and the Topaz camp.
Masumi
Hayashi Photography
This site presents Professor Masumi
Hayashi's compilation of photographs taken of the Japanese internment
camps. The photographs were taken by both Hayashi and survivors of the
internment camps and are accompanied by information regarding
individual camps. The Map Pages are filled with panoramic images of the
camps and assist in locating the separate camps. The Family Album Page
offers a collection of personal photographs taken by survivors, along
with audio clips from interviews conducted by Hayashi.
Confinement And Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II
Japanese American Relocation Sites
The National Park Service's
website hosts Confinement And Ethnicity: An Overview Of World War Ii
Japanese American Relocation Sites, an on-line report which documents
the tangible remains currently left at Japanese American internment
camps during World War II. The site features photos, maps and drawings
of the War Relocation Authority's relocation centers, as well as
Department of Justice and U.S. Army facilities where Japanese Americans
were interned. Archival research, field visits and interviews with
former internees provide preliminary documentation about the
architectural remnants, the archeological features and the artifacts
remaining at the sites.
Find out more about the history and culture of the Japanese in
America:
Japanese American Citizens League
With 112
chapters nationwide and over 24,000 members, the J.A.C.L. is the
nation's oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization.
The J.A.C.L. was founded in 1929 to address issues of discrimination
targeted specifically at persons of Japanese ancestry residing in the
United States. Learn about Japanese American History and current issues
and legislation by logging onto their site.
Japanese American
National Museum
Businessmen in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo and a
group of highly decorated World War II veterans joined together to
create The Japanese American National Museum in 1992. The result was a
private, non-profit museum dedicated to fostering understanding and
appreciation for America's ethnic and cultural diversity through
preserving, sharing and interpreting the experiences of Japanese
Americans. The museum believes honoring past and present experiences
will help abate the prejudice that continues to threaten liberty and
equality.
The National Japanese American Historical Society
Founded in 1980 in San Francisco, The National Japanese American
Historical Society (NJAHS) is a non-profit membership supported
organization dedicated to the preservation, promotion and dissemination
of materials relating to the history and culture of Japanese Americans.
Through museum-quality exhibitions and archival collections, as well as
multimedia publications and productions, it provides educational
resources and interpretation to schools, libraries and museums. The
website contains a research and reference section with reports and
bulletin boards.
PBS has broadcast a number of programs that have contributed to our understanding of the Japanese American internment experience. The following is a listing of the content-rich companion websites to these documentaries:
CHILDREN
OF THE CAMPS
CHILDREN OF THE CAMPS captures the experiences of
six Americans of Japanese ancestry who were confined as children to
internment camps. The website's World War II internment timeline traces
the historical details of internment from an FBI raid in Los Angeles'
Little Tokyo in 1942, to Ronald Regan's signing of the law that would
provide individual payments of $20,000 to each surviving internee. Look
over the actual letter of apology sent out by former president Bill
Clinton. Read excerpts from studies and books which document the
long-term mental and physical impact of the World War II internment
experience on Japanese Americans.
CONSCIENCE
AND CONSTITUTION
This site was created in conjunction with
CONSCIENCE AND CONSTITUTION, which tells the story of a handful of
young Americans who refused to be drafted from an American internment
camp. They were ready to fight for their country, but not before the
government restored their rights as United States citizens. The
government prosecuted them as criminals and Japanese American leaders
and veterans ostracized them as traitors. This site provides primary
sources, including documents, photographs and videos, which allow you
to experience first hand the choice faced by any group when confronted
by mass injustice — whether to comply or to resist. View actual
protest bulletins posted throughout the internment camps. Read the
editorials that got such men as James Omura arrested for conspiracy to
counsel draft evasion.
Rabbit in the Moon
This is
the companion website to POV's Emmy award-winning program
Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary which delves into
the buried history of political tensions, social and generational
divisions and resistance in the Japanese American internment camps. In
this program, acclaimed filmmaker Emiko Omori asks her older sister and
other detainees to reflect on the personal and political consequences
of internment. The website features comments from internees on subjects
ranging from the loyalty questionnaire to the political divisions
within their communities during World War II, a listing of books,
websites and videos to help viewers further explore the issues.
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