next photo

prev photo

Washington, D.C.– “These photographs represent 120,000 stories,” declared the daughter of civil rights icon Fred Korematsu at the National Portrait Gallery unveiling ceremony, held in this nation’s capital on February 2. She was referring to the internment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Two photographs of Fred Korematsu now join the images of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civic rights icons in The Struggle for Justice – the historic exhibit on civil rights in America. Korematsu is the first Asian American featured in the exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.

The photographs of his father also symbolized hope. “Because he never gave up hope–never,” said Karen Korematsu, who flew in from California. Her father was born in Oakland, California. He passed away in 2005.

Fred Korematsu’s challenge of Executive Order (EO) 9066 on the internment reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in a split decision in 1944 that it was a military necessity. His conviction was overturned when his case was reopened in 1983.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation acknowledging the injustice, and internment survivors also received reparations from the government. Former U.S. Commerce and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, one of the ceremony’s speakers, was among the lawmakers who pushed for the legislation, when he was a congressman from San Jose, California.

Mineta and his family were among the 120,000 who were placed in internment camps, an offshoot of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Other speakers who spoke of Korematsu as a symbol of civil rights and justice were Rep. Judy Chu (D, CA), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair; Rep. Mike Honda (D, CA), CAPAC Chair Emeritus, and Rep. Doris Matsui (D, CA), who talked of Korematsu’s efforts in fighting injustice, together with her late husband, Rep. Bob Matsui.

Dr. Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, was not present. But he wrote, “Korematsu’s images joined portraits of historical icons such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Betty Friedan, César Chávez, Leonard Crow Dog, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver.”

“Together,” he noted, “their stories invoke the powerful sentiment from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’”

Helen Ruggiero attended the ceremony. She is the administrator of Finance and Development of Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS). She praised Koramatsu’s courage, adding the enduring message of his life is as relevant today: “Always speak up against injustice.”