Fred Korematsu

Question 15 options:

A. Was released from the internment camp when he enlisted in the United States Army.

B. Challenged his detention but lost, because like everyone else, it was nearly impossible to prove loyalty to overcome the enemy alien classification given to Japanese Americans.

C. Was classified as an enemy alien, although he was a United States citizen, and was detained first in the Topaz, Utah camp then in the Jerome, Arkansas camp.

D. Challenged his detention, but won because he was able to prove, unlike everyone else, that he was loyal to the United States.

The correct answer is C, as Fred Korematsu was classified as an enemy alien, although he was a United States citizen, and was detained first in the Topaz, Utah camp, then in the Jerome, Arkansas camp.

Fred Korematsu was born in 1919 to Japanese parents in Oakland, California, where he grew up while working on his family land. Being born in American soil, he benefited since his birth from American citizenship by jus soli.

When General John DeWitt, West Coast Defense Officer, ordered individuals of Japanese origin (US citizens or not) to report to the Assembly Centers for re-routing to the camps, Fred Korematsu refused to go to the camps and tried to evade the procedures. He deliberately chose to violate the civil exclusion order to avoid the forced removal of his girlfriend (an Italian-American). He used an assumed name and hid his Japanese origins, preferring rather Hawaiian and Spanish origins. He was nevertheless captured on May 30, 1942, and charged in federal court. The case reached the Supreme Court, but it confirmed the ruling from the lower courts, forcing him to internment.