Event Held to Honor WWII-Era Japanese-Ameican Rights Activist

Fort Lee, New Jersey, Jan. 30 (Jiji Press)–An event was held in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on Friday to honor Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American civil rights activist, who fought against forced detention in the United States during World War II. At a time when the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump continues cracking down on immigrants, participants at the event shared the view that the mistake of forced detentions, such as those experienced by Japanese-Americans during the war, must never be repeated. Korematsu, who was born to Japanese parents after they immigrated to the United States, was arrested and convicted for refusing a 1942 U.S. presidential order for the detention of Japanese-Americans. He continued to insist after the end of the war that the forced internment was wrong, and a retrial was held in the 1980s as a result, in which his honor was restored. Jan. 30, his date of birth, has been designated as Fred Korematsu Day in some U.S. states. Korematsu spent his life proving that everyone has the power to correct injustice, Koji Sato, 66, president of the Japanese American Association of New York, said at the event, stressing the importance of learning from negative history. Takeshi Furumoto, 81, who was born in a U.S. concentration camp in 1944, expressed concern that Trump is repeatedly making racist remarks and that his administration is deporting immigrants without appropriate procedures. Furumoto said that his father succeeded in his business but that he was deprived of everything following his forced detention. Such a thing should never happen again, Furumoto also said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]