Tag: korematsu v. united states

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AABANY Reenacts Korematsu v. United States at NAPABA Convention in Austin, Texas

On Friday, Nov. 8, during the Plenary Lunch Session at the NAPABA Convention in Austin, Texas, AABANY’s Trial Reenactment Team performed “Fred Korematsu and His Fight for Justice,” reenacting Korematsu v. United States. AABANY had performed an earlier version of this reenactment at the NAPABA Convention in Washington, DC, in 2017, to mark the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 which sent some 120,000 Japanese American citizens to internment camps without any due process. This year, to mark Fred Korematsu’s 100th birthday, AABANY’s Trial Reenactment Team performed an updated script which took into account the developments that occurred since 2017. The Korematsu case was nominally overruled in a footnote by Chief Justice Roberts in Trump v. Hawaii (2018), which upheld the Muslim Travel Ban in part. This reenactment included modifications that featured text from the majority and dissenting opinions in that case, and concluded with words from an Op-Ed written by Fred’s daughter Karen, lamenting that the United States Supreme Court had replaced one bad precedent with another.

This updated Korematsu reenactment was made special by the participation of new cast members, including Dale Minami, Don Tamaki, Peggy Nagae, and Hon. Edward Chen, members of the legal team that brought the coram nobis proceeding which overturned the wrongful conviction of Fred Korematsu. Dale, Don, Peggy, and Judge Chen played themselves. Also playing herself was Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, the United States District Court Judge who presided over the case. Karen Korematsu played herself and closed the show with moving and inspiring words from her June 28, 2018 New York Times Op-Ed article.

The 2019 Korematsu reenactment played to an audience of 900 at the NAPABA Convention Friday Plenary Lunch session, and it is easily the largest single audience for any AABANY Trial Reenactment. Judge Chin moderated a panel discussion about this case and its continuing relevance immediately after the lunch session, featuring a panel that included Don Tamaki, Dale Minami, Karen Narasaki, Hon. Marilyn Hall Patel, Hon. Edward Chen and Karen Korematsu.

Thanks to everyone who took part in performing in this historic reenactment, especially those who were part of Fred Korematsu’s Fight for Justice. We are grateful for the leadership of Kathy Hirata Chin and Hon. Denny Chin for leading AABANY’s Trial Reenactment Team. To learn more about AABANY’s Trial Reenactments, visit the reenactments website at reenactments.aabany.org.

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2019 NAPABA Convention | Luncheon Plenaries

Every year NAPABA at its national convention, strives to bring to the forefront vital issues of importance to the Asian Pacific American legal community. This year, NAPABA will feature two luncheon plenaries, a reenactment of Fred Korematsu’s fight for justice, and a panel discussion on the current issues facing the LGBTQ community in light of the ongoing debates in Texas and before the Supreme Court. Join us at the 2019 NAPABA Convention in Austin, TX as we explore these issues and many more.   

Luncheon plenaries are included in the Convention registration fee. You must be registered for the 2019 NAPABA Convention to attend these events. 

AABANY is excited to announce that it will be presenting the lunch plenary session at the NAPABA Convention on Friday, November 8, 2019. See details below.

Friday, Nov. 8 | 12 – 1:15 p.m. | Fred Korematsu’s Fight for Justice: A Reenactment of Korematsu v. United States.

Over seventy-five years ago, 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.

Although the rest of his family reported as ordered, 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. The Supreme Court affirmed his conviction as well as the convictions of Minoru Yasui and Gordon Hirabayashi, upholding the Executive Order.

In 1983, some 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 in the cases before the Supreme Court that the relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II without individualized consideration of loyalty was a matter of military necessity. Fred Korematsu spent the rest of his life teaching the lessons of his case. As he put it, “No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist.”

This program will tell the story of Fred Korematsu and his fight for justice through narration, reenactment of court proceedings, and historic documents and photographs. This is the eleventh of a series of historic reenactments presented by the Asian American Bar Association of New York.

Generously supported by Google

Featuring the AABANY Reenactment Team and special guests:

Judge Edward Chen
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Judge Denny Chin
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 

Kathy Hirata Chin
Crowell & Morning

Karen Korematsu
Fred T. Korematsu Institute

Dale Minami
Minami Tamaki LLP 

Peggy Nagae
White Men as Full Diversity Partners

Karen Narasaki
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (ret.)

Don Tamaki
Minami Tamaki LLP

Interested in continuing the discussion?
Join us for a special session in which our distinguished panel, including members of the coram nobis legal team and the judge who overturned Fred Korematsu’s conviction, will discuss Korematsu and its legacy from their own perspectives:

Session 308 | 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. | Fred Korematsu and His Fight for Justice: A Panel Discussion
The reenactment performed during Friday’s plenary session tells the story of Fred Korematsu and his fight for justice through narration, reenactment of court proceedings, and historic documents and photographs. Included in the cast are several individuals who play themselves, as well as others who lived through the proceedings as coram nobis team members. This program will build on the themes explored in the case reenactment and explore how the reversal came to be, how race and xenophobia and national security continue to impact our laws, and how we can use the lessons of the past to inform our actions today.

AABANY is also excited to announce that Glenn Magpantay, AABANY LGBT Committee Co-Chair, is slated as a speaker at the lunch plenary session on Saturday, November 9, 2019. See details below.

Saturday, Nov. 9 | 12:15 – 1:30 p.m. | Beyond Marriage Equality: The Next Stage of Inclusion

Lawrence v. Texas opened the door for inclusion for diverse communities, including laying the groundwork for marriage equality to become a right across the country. However, true inclusion is still a work in progress. Federal protections are incomplete. Some states are passing laws that discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, while others expand protections. And others try to find laws that take into account an individual’s and an organization’s religious beliefs. This session will connect the current issues faced by the LGBTQ community to the lived experience of community members and the on-the-ground debates going on in Texas and what attorneys can do in support of inclusion.

Generously supported by Paul Weiss

Moderator:

Angela G. Lim 
Grasshopper Ventures, Group, Inc. and Viz.ai, Inc. 

Speakers:

Alexander L. Chen 
National Center for Lesbian Rights and Harvard Law School

Associate Justice Sabrina Shizue McKenna
Supreme Court of the State of Hawai’i

Glenn Magpantay
National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance

John Nechman
Katine & Nechman, LLP and South Texas College of Law Houston

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Have you registered for the NAPABA Convention? The advance rate deadline is just around the corner! Save up to $150 when you register in advance. Advance rates will only be available until Oct. 28 at 11:59 p.m. CT.

For more information and to register, click here.

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AABANY Co-Sponsors: Trial Reenactment of Korematsu v. U.S.

On April 3, 2019, AABANY co-sponsored with Fordham APALSA and the Federal Bar Association a trial reenactment of the historical case, Korematsu v. U.S. in a packed Moot Courtroom at Fordham Law School.

As every seat in the spacious Moot Courtroom filled up and audience members began to stand along the sides, Dean Matthew Diller of Fordham Law School delivered passionate opening remarks. The Dean noted that the reenactment is vital to this time, for we not only need to remember the best of this nation, but also the worst of it. Judge Denny Chin, United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and his wife Kathy Hirata Chin played their usual roles of Narrators 1 and 2. The cast of the reenactment consisted of students and faculty from Fordham and a few members of the AABANY Trial Reenactment Team.

Korematsu’s struggles were recounted on a sunny afternoon in April 2019, yet a sense of heaviness that seemed to belong to an older time filled the room. Fred Korematsu was arrested during WWII for his disobedience of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Korematsu to an incarceration camp for being Japanese American. Korematsu spent the rest of his life fighting for justice. The performers’ voices were amplified through microphones, accompanied by PowerPoint slides projected onto the wall on the stage, guiding the audience through Korematsu’s decades-long struggle. When Fred Korematsu exclaimed on the stage, “The Supreme Courts’ decision meant that being an American was not enough — you also have to look like one; otherwise, you may be seen as an enemy of the state,” one cannot help but reflect on the differences and similarities of minority experiences between past and present.

The last part of the reenactment struck a thought-provoking and alarming note when the Korematsu case was overruled in a footnote in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii, but the decision itself served as justification for the travel ban targeting Muslims, raising the question of whether one injustice was exchanged with another. The reenactment ended with a wave of prolonged and warm applause from the audience.

A Q&A session and a reception followed, ending the night with great food, drinks and company.

We thank Judge Denny Chin and Kathy Hirata Chin for their continuing contributions to AABANY’s reenactment program. We thank Fordham Law School for hosting the event, and Fordham APALSA and the Federal Bar Association for co-sponsoring the reenactment. We thank the volunteer actors for delivering incredible performances. Last but not least, we thank everyone who attended the event for joining us in remembering Fred Korematsu and celebrating his achievements.

For more information on AABANY’s trial reenactment programs, visit our reenactment website at https://reenactments.aabany.org/.

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AABANY Celebrates 2nd Annual Fred Korematsu Day in New York City

On Wednesday, January 30th, AABANY celebrated Fred Korematsu’s 100th birthday and New York City’s 2nd annual Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. The historic event was presented by the Asian Practice Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA), the New York Day of Remembrance Committee, AABANY and numerous community groups. The event was hosted by NYCLA, at 14 Vesey Street, and over 150 individuals braved the freezing cold and attended to honor Fred Korematsu and his legacy.

Fred Korematsu was a Japanese American man who lived during the era of Japanese internment. Under FDR’s Executive Order 9066, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were sent to concentration camps without any hearing or due process. Fred Korematsu challenged the order by refusing to go to the concentration camp he was assigned to; his case made it all the way to the Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States. The Court, however, deferred to the Executive Order and ruled in a 6-3 landmark decision that internment was based on “military necessity.” Korematsu’s conviction was eventually overturned in 1984 in a coram nobis proceeding in which the court found that the government deliberately misstated facts or provided misleading information in obtaining the conviction of Fred Korematsu.

At the celebration, AABANY members performed “Fred Korematsu and His Fight for Justice,” a reenactment of legal proceedings in Korematsu v. United States. The reenactment was led by Hon. Denny Chin, United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Kathy Hirata Chin, Partner at Crowell & Moring, who reprised their roles as Narrators 1 and 2. Also part of the cast were many veterans of the reenactment team, including Hon. Kiyo Matsumoto, Vincent Chang, Vinoo Varghese, Francis Chin, Clara Ohr, Andrew Hahn, Yang Chen and David Weinberg.

A panel discussion on “Why the Korematsu Case Still Matters Today” followed the reenactment. The panelists were Prof. Rose Cuison Villazor of Rutgers Law School and Afaf Nasher, Executive Director for the New York Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, and Chris Kwok, AABANY Board Director and Issues Committee Chair, moderated the discussion. The panelist remarked on the importance of Korematsu in Asian Pacific American History, connecting his legacy to APA community outreach and condemning the parallels between Korematsu’s case and the current Administration’s stances on immigration, deportation, and detention.

AABANY was proud to be part of this historic celebration of Korematsu Day in New York. We were particularly pleased to be joined by Koji Abe, Deputy Chief of Mission, Jin Hashimoto, Political Consul, Yuki Kaneshige, Public Affairs Specialist from the Consulate General of Japan, and City Councilman Daniel Dromm who introduced the New York City Council resolution that established Jan. 30th as the Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution in New York City.

The celebration was covered by NHK World Japan and WNYC News. To learn more click on the following links.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190131_24/

https://www.wnyc.org/story/japanese-american-internment-dramatized/

We invite everyone to learn more about Fred Korematsu and his legacy by visiting the Korematsu Institute website. http://www.korematsuinstitute.org/homepage/

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