Fred Korematsu and The Struggle for Justice
Telling the Story of Civil Rights in America: Fred Korematsu and The Struggle for Justice
Fred T. Korematsu. Hand-colored gelatin silver print, c. 1940. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Fred T. Korematsu Family.
On February 2, 2012, our colleague, the National Portrait Gallery welcomes two photographs of Fred Korematsu (1919-2005) into The Struggle for Justice, the incredible exhibition about civil rights in America. Korematsu’s images will join portraits of cultural and political icons such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Betty Friedan, César Chávez, Leonard Crow Dog, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Their images are windows onto the journey for civil rights and justice; together, their stories invoke the powerful sentiment from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The photographs are gifts of the Fred T. Korematsu Family, a relationship that was cultivated by Ling Woo Liu, director of Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education. Korematsu is the first Asian American featured in the exhibition and joins a growing collection of Asian American portraits at the NPG that includes APAP’s gift portrait of the Honorable Norman Mineta and Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter.
Born and raised in Oakland, California, Korematsu challenged the legality of Executive Order (EO) 9066, the action that authorized the internment of Korematsu and 120,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. Americans with heritages that could be traced to the other nations at war with the U.S. at the time—Germany and Italy—were not interned. Korematsu refused the order. While Korematsu argued that the order violated his freedoms guaranteed to him as a U.S. citizen by the U.S. Constitution, he was convicted. His appeals went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in a split decision that the internment was a military necessity. Korematsu maintained that the basis of his conviction was a clear case of injustice. After the release of Japanese Americans following the end of World War II, the internment of Japanese Americans remained an unresolved issue for America.
Fred T. Korematsu (center). Gelatin silver print, 1939. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Fred T. Korematsu Family
Japanese Americans, researchers, legal experts, a Presidential Commission, and others, continued to review the circumstances and actions behind the internment. Archival and legal research revealed that documents disputing the justification for the internment were suppressed. Korematsu’s case was reopened and on November 10, 1983, his conviction was overturned. The message was powerful, especially for those who were interned: Americans of Japanese descent had done nothing wrong by virtue of their heritage; they were, first and foremost, Americans. In 1988, Japanese Americans impacted by EO 9066 received redress and reparations from the U.S. government.
Korematsu is a symbol for civil rights and justice. His opposition to EO 9066 on legal and moral grounds joins the other voices in The Struggle for Justice who were similarly committed to a concept of American democracy that lives up to its ideals. On every January 30, the state of California will celebrate Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, the first day in U.S. history to be named after an Asian American.
It will be seventy years since the signing of EO 9066, an event that is the subject of APAP’s Annual Day of Remembrance Program on February 18, 2012 at the National Museum of American History. The APAP is part of the largest museum and research complex in the world and our role is to connect Americans with their rich heritage and history.
Job Opening: Senior Advancement Officer
Senior Advancement Officer,
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program
odstaffing@si.edu
Commensurate with experience
February 17, 2012
Website
Come join a team of dedicated staff at an exceptional moment in Smithsonian history. The Institution is implementing a groundbreaking comprehensive strategic plan that expands the programming, educational, and scholarly activity of its museums and research centers, and undertakes its very first Institution-wide fundraising campaign. In planning for the campaign, the Smithsonian has built a model fundraising organization, one that will meet the growing needs of this unique organization and offer excellent professional opportunities.
This new position offers exciting opportunities for the successful candidate to make a significant impact on the future of the Smithsonian. This is the time to join this amazing Institution.
The Senior Advancement Officer, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (APAP), plans and accomplishes all aspects of fundraising for the organization in support of its goals. The position reports to the Director of the Asian Pacific American Program.
Specific duties include:
— Works collaboratively with APAP Director and other staff in establishing funding priorities
— Establishes and maintains relationships with a variety of key donors and prospects and plans and executes effective fundraising approaches to meet funding priorities
— Manages the work of the APAP Advisory Board and APAP’s relationship with the board members
— Develops effective and creative ways to advance the mission of the APAP
— Coordinates efforts closely with the Smithsonian Office of Advancement
Successful candidates will demonstrate experience and success in fundraising, strong organizational and communication skills, the initiative and ability to work independently, and the capacity to think creatively about expressing the importance of history, art and culture. A minimum of four years of progressive fundraising experience, a passion for learning and exploration, and the desire to join a dynamic and growing operation should be demonstrated in your application. Experience in complex higher education or a large cultural or environmental organization is preferred. Extensive travel required.
Smithsonian human sunburst.
Founded in 1998, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program (APAP) provides vision, leadership, and support for all Asian Pacific American activities for the Smithsonian and works to better reflect the contributions of Asian Pacific Americans to the American experience, world culture, and the understanding of our planet and the natural world throughout Smithsonian collections, research, exhibitions, education, and outreach. To this end, APAP curates public programs, educational materials, and traveling exhibitions with a community-based approach and focus.
The Smithsonian Institution is a unique complex of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and nine research centers. The Smithsonian is a national and world treasure and is dedicated to its founding mission, “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Its exhibitions, programs, collections, and outreach touch the lives of millions of Americans every year, as well as many who visit us from abroad.
The Smithsonian Institution offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive package of benefits.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should submit their resumes and a cover letter to odstaffing@si.edu by February 17th. Please indicate “APAP” in your e-mail subject line.
The Smithsonian Institution is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
2012 Annual Day of Remembrance at the Smithsonian
Warner Bros. Theater
First Floor
National Museum of American History
14th Street and Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Metro: Federal Triangle
or Smithsonian
Free and open to the public.
Congressional Gold Medal, photo from the U.S. Mint
Save the date! 2012 marks 70 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066, the action that led to the internment of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II and the formation of heroic Japanese American military units such as the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and sections of the Military Intelligence Service. Learn more about this period in American history through objects, veterans, speakers, and films. Learn about the November 2011 awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Japanese Americans who served in World War II. Join us for an afternoon of reflection and hear amazing stories about perseverance and service.
Related Links:
Happy Lunar New Year!
We’d like to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year 2012 (Year of the Dragon)! Click here to read more about this important event and how it is celebrated among many Asian Pacific American (APA) communities. This year, Smithsonian colleagues Jina Lee (Smithsonian American Art Museum) and Sojin Kim (Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage) share how they, as Korean Americans, celebrate the Lunar New Year in their homes.
Leave us a comment about how you celebrate the Lunar New Year!
Young Jina posing in her han-bok.
Guest Blog by Jina Lee, Exhibitions Assistant at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
As a Korean American, I’ve had the pleasure of ringing in the New Year, both in the traditional Korean (Eastern) and Western tradition. The Western tradition, as we all know, is the fun filled night of celebrating the last night of the Western calendar—Dec. 31st. In particular, my family will the end of that particular year. We would either go into the city (Washington D.C.) for a nice dinner outing, or stay in and have Mom cook us a delicious dinner of steak or fish. Lastly, we would put on the annual Dick Clark (now Ryan Seacrest) New Years Eve television special, and watch the iconic Time Square ball drop as the massive crowds chant in sync with the countdown. While the Western tradition seems to focus on celebrating the end of the calendar, the following day (January 1) for Korean Americans seems to be the opposite. The focus is more so on starting anew and with a clean slate for the New Year. Our New Years Eve meals were usually so decadent, however on New Years Day, Mom would cook the traditional Korean rice cake and mandu (dumpling) soup for brunch. This soup usually had a beef based broth, lots of fresh rice cakes called dduk and homemade mandu (dumpling) dropped into the soup, along with scallions, egg, seaweed (gim), and slices of beef as garnishes. It was scrumptious!
Young Jina is bowing to her grandparents as a sign of respect and good fortune in the New Year. This Korean tradition is known as sae-bae.
After “cleansing” ourselves with this soup, all the elders in our family would then sit on the floor of our living room to receive their sae-bae bows from the young ones (their children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, etc.). Sae-bae is a traditional Korean custom of bowing to one’s elder as a sign of respect. As the young ones, we would wish them good fortune in the coming year. We (the young ones again) would usually line up in a row, and do a group sae-bae, as opposed to the embarrassing solo sae-bae, where it was all eyes on you. But with all that embarrassment aside, what is rewarding about the sae-bae is the money you receive from your elders as a sign of good fortune and luck in the coming year. I used to place this money in my little red and gold hand-sewn pouch that came with my han-bok (traditional Korean garments). When I was little, I wasn’t fond of the han-bok material because of all the multiple layers and the different texture from my school clothes. But, the richness of all the different colors on the han-bok were very beautiful even to my little girl eyes. At that time, I probably didn’t realize I was celebrating both my Korean and American heritage, however after 26 years or so, I now realize how special it was to do so. Happy Lunar New Year!
Guest Blog by Sojin Kim, Curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
The translation of traditions from one place to another is of course an imprecise process with its inevitable miscalculations, deprivations, and redundancies. In my family, birthdays are celebrated on days that are vague approximations of lunar calendar coordinates and in some cases downright fabricated dates. No matter, my mother says, in our tradition everyone turns a year older on the first day of the new year, an occasion that we often observe twice.
Left: My mother's version of duk mandu guk, a dish that Koreans typically enjoy to celebrate the new year. Right: Chewy rice cake (duk).
A few weeks ago on January 1, my family convened as usual for our New Year’s meal. We sat down at 10:30 am with glasses of champagne and steaming bowls of duk mandu guk. This year, my mom’s version included both the flat chewy rice cakes and meat dumplings, strips of fried egg and marinated beef, kimchi, and a few slices of Japanese shishito pepper (standing in for the green onions that she had forgotten to buy). The key ingredient is the duk (rice cake)—eating it on New Year’s, I’ve been assured, is good luck.
A meal from the food offered to the ancestors.
Later in the day, my family gathered around for a second, less formal meal. We heaped our plates with marinated ribs, sautéed vegetables, battered shrimp and fish, stuffed peppers, and more kimchi. This bounty, wrapped carefully in old takeout containers and aluminum foil, was delivered from an old family friend, who had prepared and offered the spread to the ancestors earlier in the day. Every year, we get their leftovers, and we feast for days on these, even as our own ancestors go hungry.
In a week or so, as the Lunar Year of the Dragon kicks off, my family will sit down again for duk mandu guk. We may or may not make it ourselves—very likely we’ll go to a restaurant. In either case, we figure, one can never have too much good luck.
Behind the Scenes: Development
Click to view our holiday email
We launched our Annual Giving program this past December. A lot of meetings and brainstorming sessions went into redesigning the letter, pledge form, and e-Solicitation email. Let us know what you think of the designs! We raised double the amount from last year for the APAP and nearly triple the amount for the HomeSpun initiative. For all who answered both our calls, thank you! We are grateful for your enthusiasm and support. You may have noticed our revamped “Thank you” letters. They are personally signed by staff and include a sidebar on how you can get involved and stay informed.
In the Year of the Dragon, our goal is to reach 100% participation from previous donors and grow our list of supporters by 50%. We need your help! If you would like to volunteer your time and/or skills, please feel free to contact me at PirachaSA@si.edu.
Between Two Worlds: Chinese Americans During the Cold War
Jennifer Fang
On January 3, 2012, Jennifer Fang, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Delaware and Predoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of American History gave a presentation at the NMAH entitled, “Between Two Worlds: Chinese Americans and Suburbanization During the Cold War.” Drawing from Fang’s research at the NMAH Archives Center, the talk examined the relationship between Americans’ shifting perceptions of Chinese people from unwanted and inassimilable foreigners to model minorities, changing immigration laws, and the influx of well-educated, elite Chinese immigrants displaced by the Communist takeover of Mainland China in the decades after World War II.
Fang’s dissertation explores how American-born Chinese and first-generation immigrants settled in the suburbs and constructed hyphenated Chinese and American identities that were shaped by the suburban environment. Using oral history interviews along with traditional archival sources, Fang’s work helps to shift the focus of Chinese American history away from urban Chinatowns while simultaneously arguing that the postwar suburbs were not as culturally or racially homogenous as earlier scholars have portrayed them to be.
Events in Spring 2012
Spring 2012 Events
Mark your calendars for our upcoming Spring 2012 events! You can also print this PDF or save it to your computer.
January 23 — Lunar New Year
February 18
Annual Day of Remembrance (DOR)
2pm Warner Brothers Theater
National Museum of American History
View last year’s event
March 10
Gallery 360: Roger Shimomura
2pm National Portrait Gallery
March 15
Vietnamese American Public Program
View last year’s event
April 7
Gallery 360: Tam Tran
2pm National Portrait Gallery
April 14
Asian American Portraits of Encounter Image & Word Symposium
McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
May 6
Smithsonian APA Heritage Month Family Day
11:30am – 3:00pm Kogod Courtyard, National Portrait Gallery
View last year’s event
May 12
Gallery 360: Shizu Saldamando
2pm National Portrait Gallery
Gordon Hirabayashi
Gordon Hirabayashi (right) and Grayce Uyehara at the Supreme Court. Photo courtesy Doris Sato, 1987.
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program honors the life and legacy of Gordon Hirabayashi, who passed away on January 2, 2012. Hirabayashi was a sociology professor, civil rights activist, and known for challenging the basis of Executive Order (EO) 9066, which had authorized the evacuation and imprisonment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. He was the petitioner in court case, Hirabayashi v. United States (1943).
Gordon Hirabayashi, 1942.
While a student at the University of Washington, Hirabayashi objected to EO 9066 by refusing to abide by a curfew imposed on Japanese Americans and refusing to enter a relocation camp. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the government’s argument that the restrictions were a military necessity. It took four decades for Hirabayashi to be vindicated, with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that the internment policy “had been based on political expediency, not on any risk to national security,” as The Associated Press wrote.
Hirabayashi’s story about U.S. civil rights history was featured in the landmark exhibition, A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution at the National Museum of American History.
Here is an interview from the exhibit:
“I was charged with uh, violation of uh, exclusion order. And then, subsequently I was given a count two, uh, curfew violation by my own admission. They said: ‘If you feel this way, what’d you do about the curfew?’ I said: ‘Well, uh what were you doing the last coupla’ nights, were you out after eight?’ And he says ‘Yeah.’ And I said: ‘Well, so was I.’ And he said: ‘Oh, then you violated the curfew.’ And he put me down. So those were the charges against me. The uh, instruction (I’m condensing this) but the instruction of the judge to the jury uh, as they were to leave was: ‘You can forget all that Constitutional discussion by the defense. The Western Defense Command order is: That all persons of Japanese ancestry both alien and non-alien must abide by these orders. You are to determine first of all whether he is of Japanese ancestry. If he is, did he abide by these orders?’ And, all of those questions were admitted by me.”
— Gordon Hirabayashi: Violation of Exclusion Order
Save the Date!
The Smithsonian Annual Day of Remembrance (DOR) is on February 18, 2012. It will be at 2pm at the Warner Brothers Theater in the National Museum of American History.
Happy New Year from HomeSpun
Happy New Year from HomeSpun
The end of a year is a good time to look back, reflecting on achievements, and to look forward to see what we still need to accomplish. I joined the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program almost a year ago to curate HomeSpun: Smithsonian Indian American Heritage Project. I was driven by the challenge to build an exhibition that told the stories of Indian immigrants and later generations in the United States.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Advisory Council, the Academic Committee, and our loyal friends. HomeSpun would not be where it is today without your help. Other remarkable people have added to HomeSpun through their participation in the exhibition, including noted pioneers of the nation. These range from IT visionaries, noted physicians, award-winning authors, a Super Bowl champion, elected officials, celebrities, musicians and dancers, and more.
It is the inspiring efforts of everyday persons I have met that is our story, whether of the immigrant physician who arrived in the 1950s, the mother and daughter who show unconditional love for one another as they struggle over generational divides, or the families who support their children as they enter spelling bees, hip hop, and everything in between.
Happy 2012!
Pawan Dhingra
Curator, HomeSpun: Smithsonian Indian American Heritage Project
Click to download the AAHOA Magazine article.
HomeSpun was recently featured in the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) magazine. Click here to download a PDF of the article.
Donations may be made online at http://homespun.si.edu/donation/ or download our pledge form and mail it to:
Smithsonian APA Program
Capital Gallery
Suite 7065, MRC 516
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Soybean: Hidden Treasures
APA Collections Update from Noriko Sanefuji:
What comes to mind when you hear about soybeans? Many people may think of foods such as tofu. The museum recently collected objects from a tofu shop founded in 1917 by Japanese immigrants Eizo and Tsuyo Honda. Located in Wahiawa, Hawai`i, Honda Tofu is one of the oldest tofu businesses in the U.S. After corn, soybeans are the second largest crop in the U.S. market.
Soybeans from China, 1915.
The soybean was commercially introduced to the U.S. market around 1915 from East Asia—mainly from China, Korea and Japan. I recently came across these soybeans from The Panama Pacific International Exposition which was a part of the 1915 World’s Fair held in San Francisco, California. My colleague came knocking on the door for assistance in translating the label. My former intern from China and I played a role in translating. The soybeans pictured on the right are from China.
Is it a coincidence that it dates back to 1915? What kind of role did the Smithsonian play in acquiring these soybeans? It provides us with a window of opportunity to look into the historical significance of the soybean. Who were the people involved? What were their motivations?
Soybeans in the U.S. are not only consumed by humans and animals, but they are also used to make many other products. Thus, the soybean is a critical product in the agricultural economy today.
Soybean field in Iowa.
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