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Korematsu's Defiance
- Fred Korematsu, a 23-year-old Japanese American, refused to report to an internment camp.
- He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to probation, despite never being to Japan.
Court's Justification
- The Supreme Court upheld Korematsu's conviction, arguing that the internment was not racially motivated but a necessary war measure.
- They claimed it wasn't about prejudice but protecting the West Coast from a Japanese invasion.
Linguistic Whitewashing
- The Court's opinion used semantics to disguise its racist justification for the internment.
- They refused to call the internment sites "concentration camps", preferring "exclusion order", to soften the implications.