I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 640 
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 30, 2023 
Mr. TAKANO (for himself, Ms. TOKUDA, Ms. CHU, and Ms. MATSUI) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Finan-
cial 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 2023’’. 
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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 Jackson who de-
scribed the validation of the principle of racial dis-
crimination 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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