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Today is #FredKoramatsuDay

#TodayInOaklandHistory January 30, 1919, Fred Korematsu was born. When Executive Order 9066 came down in 1942, the Castlemont HS grad refused instead of reporting with others of Japanese ancestry.

He was arrested, and his case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. The case lost.

It was later shown the government had suppressed data showing Japanese Americans were not a threat, and the case was formally vacated.

He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery, and his grave marker bears a replica of his Presidential Medal of Freedom. One of the last things Korematsu said was, "I'll never forget my government treating me like this. And I really hope that this will never happen to anybody else because of the way they look, if they look like the enemy of our country."

https://localwiki.org/oakland/Fred_Korematsu

#FredKorematsuDay #Oakland

To learn more about Fred Korematstu, listen to the East Bay Yesterday podcast episode, "They knew it was a life"
https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/they-knew-it-was-a-lie/