Korematsu v. United States
323 U.S. 214 Supreme Court 1944And any … results in holding that the order under which petitioner was convicted was valid. It is said that we are dealing here withthe … case ofimprisonment of a citizen in a concentration camp solely because of … hisancestry,without … United States. Our task would be simple, our duty clear, wereisa … Regardless of the true nature of the assembly and relocation centers — and we deem itunjustifiableto … camps with all theuglyconnotations that … order. To cast this case into outlines ofracial prejudice, … to the real military dangerswhich were prese… Korematsu wasnot … that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily, and finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders — asinevitably … great, and time was short. We cannot — by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight — now say that at that time these actions werejustified...
...According … issued by General DeWitt be deemed a comprehensive code of instructions, their tenor is clear and not contradictory. They put upon Korematsu the obligation to leave Military Area No. 1, but onlybythe … States*, 320 U.S. 81, fail to sustain the military order which made the conduct now in controversy a crime. And so I join in the opinion ofthe Court, but should … the Constitution which confer on theCongress and the President … the war power of the Government is "the power to wage war successfully." *Hirabayashi v. United States*, supra at 93; and see *Home Bldg. & L. Assn. v. Blaisdell*, 290 U.S. 398, 426.Therefore, the … order that expresses an allowable judgment of war needs by those entrusted with the duty of conducting war as "an unconstitutional order" is to suffuse a part of theConstitutionwith … orders are "reasonably expedient military precautions" in time of war and yet to deny them constitutional legitimacy makes of the Constitution an instrument for dialectic subleties not reasonably to be attributed to the hard-headed Framers, of whom a majority had had actual participation in war. If a military order such as that under review does not transcend themeans … regulate commerce. And being an exercise of the war power explicitly granted by the Constitution for safeguarding the national life by prosecuting war effectively, I findnothing inthe … refusal voluntarily to leave the area which included his home in obedience to the order excluding him therefrom. Critical attention must be given to the dates and sequence of events.
December 8, 1941, the United States declaredwaron Japan.
February 19, … and national-defense utilities," provided that certain Military Commanders might, in their discretion, "prescribe military areas" and define their
