WHY TEACH ABOUT FRED KOREMATSU?
Fred Korematsu was an ordinary person who took an extraordinary stand. By resisting the U.S. military orders that imprisoned more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, he shows us how anyone can stand up for what is right—no matter the odds. His arrest and conviction, the constitutional issues raised by his U.S. Supreme Court case, Korematsu v. United States, and his vindication 39 years later stand as civil rights milestones.
Fred remained an activist throughout his life, standing up for Muslim Americans and other marginalized groups. His story teaches us not only about one of the most blatant civil rights violations in U.S. history, the Japanese American incarceration, but also about broader topics including other civil rights heroes and movements, World War II, the Constitution, global human rights, and Asian American history. Fred Korematsu’s story also connects to present-day civil rights discrimination and political scapegoating such as mass incarceration, anti-immigrant sentiment, and Islamophobia.
> Read more of Fred’s story
>> Learn about Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution
>> Interview with Karen Korematsu – Karen’s answers to frequently asked questions from students.
The Korematsu Institute develops and distributes educational resources about Fred Korematsu’s story, the WWII Japanese American incarceration, Asian American history, and current civil rights issues.
EDUCATIONAL TOOLKITS
Our educational toolkit contains historical information, photos, and supplemental materials that teach history and its connections to the challenging issues of today. These toolkits are available for free for teachers and parents thanks to generous support from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, and individual donors. Since December 2010, we have distributed nearly 12,000 Toolkits to teachers in all 50 states and 12 countries around the world. Although we have temporarily stopped mailing print kits, many of the materials are still available online. To request access to our digital materials, please complete this form.
EDUCATOR WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTAIONS
The Korematsu Institute’s workshops for educators have included teacher professional development and curriculum writing institutes. Our last in-person workshop took place in August 2019 in the Presidio in San Francisco, CA. Nine educators from multiple grade levels across the country participated in the multi-day session and authored nine new lesson plans. Each plan was designed in conjunction with a specific film clip from the documentary “And Then They Came For Us” and is aligned to the C4 standards from the National Council for Social Studies. These lessons are available for download on our website here and on the PBS LearningMedia website.
PBS LEARNINGMEDIA
The Korematsu Institute collaborates with PBS LearningMedia to publish multimedia lesson plans. These standards-aligned lesson plans explore topics such as Japanese American resistance to the incarceration and the U.S. government’s misleading use of language and euphemisms. Each lesson plan integrates a documentary film clip and includes background information, focus questions, objectives, detailed activities, and supplementary materials. View all the lessons and stream the video clips via PBS LearningMedia.
These lessons were made possible thanks to generous funding from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, administered by the California State Library, and the Japanese American Confinement Sites program through the National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
OTHER PUBLICATION AND MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES
• The Power of Words – a grassroots campaign to identify, discuss and implement a plan
within the organization of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) to identify
euphemisms and misnomers and encourage the use of more accurate terminology as it
relates to the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans
during World War II.
• 2017 Korematsu Institute Calendar Lesson Plans (Coming Soon)
• Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (book for students ages 8-12 by Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi)
• Fred Korematsu All American Hero (graphic novel)
• Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest for Justice (also available on
Amazon)
• C-SPAN interview with Peter Irons and Karen Korematsu discussing the landmark U.S.
Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States, in which the court ruled 6-3 that Japanese
internment camps were necessary for the protection of all citizens
during World War II.
• Interview with Karen Korematsu – Karen’s answers to frequently asked questions from students