University of Michigan Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and
The Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission host
Remembering Fred T. Korematsu’s WWII Legacy,
Equal Protection Transgressions Then and Now
on Fred T. Korematsu Day in Michigan
Fred T. Korematsu was one of many American citizens of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated during World War II. He is famous for his defying the government’s order to report to an assembly center. Fred Korematsu appealed his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him in 1944. Years later, his conviction was vacated by the U.S. District Court of Northern California. Fred’s courage and activism was recognized by his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1998. In 2023, Governor Whitmer signed into law Fred T. Korematsu Day. Fred T. Korematsu is now honored by the state of Michigan for a day in his name in perpetuity.
Dale Minami is a lawyer, partner and cofounder of Minami & Tamaki LLP in San Francisco. Mr. Minami was Fred Korematsu’s lawyer for the 1983 coram nobis “writ of error” case that successfully sought to vacate the criminal conviction of Fred Korematsu in 1944.
Mary Kamidoi is a former WWII incarceree incarcerated at Rohwer Camp in Arkansas. Ms. Kamidoi will talk about her personal eye witness recollections about the incarceration.
Matthew L.M. Fletcher is the Harry Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law in the Michigan Law School, and teaches in the Department of American Culture. Professor Fletcher will address the Equal Protection and Due Process transgressions the WWII incarcerees faced, and the transgressions that continue to occur today.
Location: Jeffries Hall, Room 1020, Thursday, January 30, 2025, 12:00 pm
For More Information,
Contact Nate Sumimoto, UM APALSA political action chair at sumimoto@umich.edu
Co-sponsored by Department of American Culture, A/PIA Studies, JACL Detroit and
University of Michigan Alumni Association AAPI Club
