At the 1998 White House Award Presentation Ceremony, former President Clinton bestowed honor to Fred T. Korematsu, describing him as "an ordinary man who took an extraordinary stand." This Friday, January 30 2015, the State of California will commemorate its fifth Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. Introduced five years ago by then California Assemblymembers Warren Furutani and Marty Block, the Governor's signing of Assembly Bill 1775 into California statute law signifies the first day in United States history -- on a state or national level -- that would recognize and honor an Asian American. The states of Hawai'i, Utah, Illinois, and Georgia have since also recognized Korematsu Day by legislative action, statute, or proclamation, and more are under deliberation.

Fred T. Korematsu's personal life experience marks a significant watershed moment in United States civil rights and constitutional history. A second-generation Japanese American citizen, he was arrested and convicted in 1942 for defying government orders to report to one of the concentration camps set up by the American government during WWII to incarcerate Japanese Americans. His case was appealed in 1944, but the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of that decision to remove and imprison Japanese Americans during wartime due to national security concern and military necessity.

It was not until 1983 when a pro-bono legal collective of attorneys successfully re-opened Korematsu's case, federally litigated in the U.S. District Court, and ultimately overturned his 1944 conviction. The legal team filed a writ of coram nobis in San Francisco that challenged the court's judgment based on new evidence previously suppressed, altered, and destroyed and successfully had it overturned in 1983. Key 'smoking gun' evidence was contributed by researchers Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga and Jack Herzig, with additional legal support offered by San Francisco's Asian Law Caucus. Fred Korematsu's criminal record was finally cleared, yet even more important to him was the public scrutiny provoked by the attorney team's astute, precise litigation regarding the unjust WWII incarceration and imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese Americans long criticized as civil liberties disasters.

In 1999, the Korematsu Coram Nobis litigation team donated to UCLA more than 25 boxes of litigation files, pleadings, legal research memoranda, internal correspondence, and relevant government documents, and the Asian American Studies Center was honored to receive the collection for archival processing, arrangement, and cataloging. The Fred T. Korematsu v. United States coram nobis litigation records (Collection #545) is available for free public access at UCLA Library Special Collections, and its finding aid can be found online at: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6z09r17k/

Teachers and educators are encouraged on the days or weeks surrounding January 30 to remember, recognize, and teach students about Fred Korematsu's courageous stand and his story to reclaim, restore, and preserve the meaning of civil liberty. The Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education, a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives, offers educational resources and K-12 teaching kits. For more information: http://korematsuinstitute.org/institute/