I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 821 
To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Fred Korematsu, 
in recognition of his contributions to civil rights, his loyalty and patriot-
ism to the Nation, and his dedication to justice and equality. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 28, 2025 
Mr. TAKANO (for himself, Mr. FONG, Ms. TOKUDA, Ms. MALOY, Ms. MATSUI, 
and Mrs. KIM) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on 
House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Fred 
Korematsu, in recognition of his contributions to civil 
rights, his loyalty and patriotism to the Nation, and 
his dedication to justice and equality. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fred Korematsu Con-
gressional Gold Medal Act of 2025’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) On January 30, 1919, Fred Toyosaburo 
Korematsu was born in Oakland, California, to Jap-
anese immigrants. 
(2) 
Fred 
Korematsu 
graduated 
from 
Castlemont High School in 1937 and attempted to 
enlist in the military twice but was unable to do so 
because his selective service classification was 
changed 
to 
enemy 
alien, 
even 
though 
Fred 
Korematsu was a United States citizen. 
(3) Fred Korematsu trained as a welder and 
worked as a foreman at the docks in Oakland until 
the date on which he and all Japanese Americans 
were fired. 
(4) On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the 
military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing the 
United States to declare war against Japan. 
(5) On February 19, 1942, President Franklin 
D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (7 Fed. 
Reg. 1407 (February 25, 1942)), which authorized 
the Secretary of War to prescribe military areas— 
(A) from which any or all people could be 
excluded; and 
(B) with respect to which, the right of any 
person to enter, remain in, or leave would be 
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subject to any restriction the Military Com-
mander imposed in his discretion. 
(6) On May 3, 1942, the Lieutenant General of 
the Western Command of the Army issued Civilian 
Exclusion Order 34 (May 3, 1942) (referred to in 
this preamble as the ‘‘Civilian Exclusion Order’’) di-
recting that all people of Japanese ancestry be re-
moved from designated areas of the West Coast 
after May 9, 1942, because people of Japanese an-
cestry in the designated areas were considered to 
pose a threat to national security. 
(7) Fred Korematsu refused to comply with the 
Civilian Exclusion Order and was arrested on May 
30, 1942. 
(8) After his arrest, Fred Korematsu— 
(A) was held for 21⁄2 months in the Pre-
sidio stockade in San Francisco, California; 
(B) was convicted on September 8, 1942, 
of violating the Civilian Exclusion Order and 
sentenced to 5 years of probation; and 
(C) was detained at Tanforan Assembly 
Center, a former horse racetrack used as a 
holding facility for Japanese Americans before 
he was exiled with his family to the Topaz in-
carceration camp in the State of Utah. 
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(9) More than 120,000 Japanese Americans 
were similarly detained, with no charges brought and 
without due process, in 10 permanent War Reloca-
tion Authority camps located in isolated desert areas 
of the States of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colo-
rado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. 
(10) The people of the United States subject to 
the Civilian Exclusion Order lost their homes, liveli-
hoods, and the freedoms guaranteed to all people of 
the United States. 
(11) Fred Korematsu unsuccessfully challenged 
the Civilian Exclusion Order as it applied to him 
and appealed the decision of the United States Dis-
trict Court to the United States Court of Appeals 
for the Ninth Circuit, which sustained his conviction. 
(12) Fred Korematsu was subsequently con-
fined with his family in the incarceration camp in 
Topaz, Utah, for 2 years, and during that time, 
Fred Korematsu appealed his conviction to the Su-
preme Court of the United States. 
(13) On December 18, 1944, the Supreme 
Court of the United States issued Korematsu v. 
United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), which— 
(A) 
upheld 
the 
conviction 
of 
Fred 
Korematsu by a vote of 6 to 3; and 
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(B) concluded that Fred Korematsu was 
removed from his home not based on hostility 
toward him or other Japanese Americans but 
because the United States was at war with 
Japan and the military feared a Japanese inva-
sion of the West Coast. 
(14) In his dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. 
United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), Justice Frank 
Murphy called the Civilian Exclusion Order the ‘‘le-
galization of racism’’. 
(15) Two other Supreme Court Justices dis-
sented from the majority decision in Korematsu v. 
United States, including Justice Robert H. Jackson 
who described the validation of the principle of racial 
discrimination as a ‘‘loaded weapon, ready for the 
hand of any authority that can bring forward a 
plausible claim of an urgent need’’. 
(16) Fred Korematsu continued to maintain his 
innocence for decades following World War II, and 
his conviction hampered his ability to gain employ-
ment. 
(17) In 1982, legal historian Peter Irons and 
researcher Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig gained access to 
Government documents under section 552 of title 5, 
United States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Free-
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dom of Information Act’’), that indicate that while 
the case of Fred Korematsu was before the Supreme 
Court of the United States, the Federal Government 
misled the Supreme Court of the United States and 
suppressed findings that Japanese Americans on the 
West Coast were not security threats. 
(18) In light of the newly discovered informa-
tion, Fred Korematsu filed a writ of error coram 
nobis with the United States District Court for the 
Northern District of California, and on November 
10, 1983, United States District Judge Marilyn Hall 
Patel issued her decision in Korematsu v. United 
States, 584 F. Supp. 1406 (N.D. Cal. 1984), that— 
(A) overturned the Federal conviction of 
Fred Korematsu; 
(B) concluded that, at the time that senior 
Government officials presented their case before 
the Supreme Court of the United States in 
1944, the senior Government officials knew 
there was no factual basis for the claim of mili-
tary necessity for the Civil Exclusion Order; 
(C) acknowledged that ‘‘the government 
knowingly withheld information from the courts 
when they were considering the critical question 
of military necessity’’ in the original case; 
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(D) recognized that ‘‘there is substantial 
support in the record that the government de-
liberately omitted relevant information and pro-
vided misleading information in papers before 
the court. The information was critical to the 
court’s determination’’; and 
(E) stated that although the decision of 
the Supreme Court of the United States in 
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 
(1944), remains on the pages of United States 
legal and political history, ‘‘[a]s historical 
precedent it stands as a constant caution that 
in times of war or declared military necessity 
our institutions must be vigilant in protecting 
constitutional guarantees’’. 
(19) The Commission on Wartime Relocation 
and Internment of Civilians, authorized by Congress 
in 1980 to review the facts and circumstances sur-
rounding the relocation and incarceration of Japa-
nese Americans under Executive Order 9066 (7 Fed. 
Reg. 1407 (February 25, 1942)), concluded that— 
(A) the decision of the Supreme Court of 
the United States in Korematsu v. United 
States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), is overruled by 
the court of history; 
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(B) a grave personal injustice was done to 
the United States citizens and resident aliens of 
Japanese ancestry who, without individual re-
view or any probative evidence against them, 
were excluded, removed, and detained by the 
United States during World War II; and 
(C) the exclusion, removal, and detention 
of United States citizens and resident aliens of 
Japanese ancestry was motivated largely by 
‘‘racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a fail-
ure of political leadership’’. 
(20) The overturning of the conviction of Fred 
Korematsu and the findings of the Commission on 
Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in-
fluenced the decision by Congress to pass the Civil 
Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. 4211 et seq.) to 
request a Presidential apology and the symbolic pay-
ment of compensation to people of Japanese ances-
try who lost liberty or property due to discriminatory 
actions of the Federal Government. 
(21) On August 10, 1988, President Reagan 
signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. 
4211 et seq.), stating, ‘‘[H]ere we admit a wrong; 
here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to 
equal justice under the law.’’. 
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(22) On January 15, 1998, President Clinton 
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 
highest civilian award of the United States, to Fred 
Korematsu, stating, ‘‘[i]n the long history of our 
country’s constant search for justice, some names of 
ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, 
Brown, Parks. To that distinguished list, today we 
add the name of Fred Korematsu.’’. 
(23) Fred Korematsu remained a tireless advo-
cate for civil liberties and justice throughout his life 
by— 
(A) speaking out against racial discrimina-
tion and violence; and 
(B) cautioning the Federal Government 
against repeating mistakes of the past that sin-
gled out individuals for heightened scrutiny on 
the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or reli-
gion. 
(24) On March 30, 2005, Fred Korematsu died 
at the age of 86 in Marin County, California. 
(25) Fred Korematsu is a role model for all 
people of the United States who love the United 
States and the promises contained in the Constitu-
tion of the United States, and the strength and per-
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severance of Fred Korematsu serve as an inspiration 
for all people who strive for equality and justice. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 
for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of Congress, 
of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemoration 
to Fred Korematsu, in recognition of his contributions to 
civil rights, his loyalty and patriotism to the Nation, and 
his dedication to justice and equality. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the 
presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 
of the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec-
retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 
devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Sec-
retary. The design shall bear an image of, and inscription 
of the name of, ‘‘Fred Korematsu’’. 
(c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 
gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 
shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 
it shall be available for display as appropriate and 
made available for research. 
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(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 
Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 
make the gold medal awarded pursuant to this Act 
available for display elsewhere, particularly at the 
National Portrait Gallery, and that preference 
should be given to locations affiliated with the 
Smithsonian Institution. 
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 
bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3, at 
a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 
materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 
(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu-
ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 
51 of title 31, United States Code. 
(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of sections 
5134 and 5136 of title 3, United States Code, all medals 
struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 
items. 
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 
SALE. 
(a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is 
authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 
Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec-
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essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under 
this Act. 
(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 
Enterprise Fund. 
Æ 
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