korematsu's arrest and internment
When Korematsu was twenty-three years old, Executive Order 9066 went into place. Ignoring court order, Fred refused to go into the internments camps set up for Japanese-Americans in 1942 and continued to live his life as usual. In order to appear less Japanese, Korematsu received plastic surgery on his eyes. Additionally, he changed his name to Clyde Sarah and claimed to be of Spanish and Hawaiian ancestry. However, Korematsu’s scheme was eventually found out and on May 30th, 1942 he was arrested in San Leandro, California and sent to jail. During his imprisonment, Korematsu was visited by the director of San Francisco office of American Civil Liberties Union, Ernest Besig, who asked him to become the test case to protest the legality of the government's internment of Japanese-American. Korematsu accepted and appealed his case until it reached the Supreme Court, which ruled against him with a vote of six to three. The Supreme Court justified internment by claiming that Japanese-Americans had radio signaled enemy ships from the shores of the West Coast. On September 8th, 1942 he was found guilty for violating Executive Order 9066 and put on 5 year probation. He was then sent to live at Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California for several months and transferred to Topaz, Utah to a more permanent concentration camp.
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