BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1775
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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 1775 (Furutani)
          As Amended  May 11, 2010
          Majority vote 

           EDUCATION           8-0                                         
           
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          |Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, Ammiano, | |                          |
          |     |Arambula, Carter, Eng, Miller, | |                          |
          |     |Torlakson                    | |                          |
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          |     |                             | |                          |
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           SUMMARY  :   Designates January 30 of each year as Fred Korematsu  
          Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, a day of special  
          significance.  Specifically,  this bill  :

          1)Makes legislative findings and declarations regarding the  
            life, career, contributions and death of Fred Korematsu, as  
            well as his life-long fight for the constitutional rights and  
            civil liberties of all.

          2)Adds January 30 of each year as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil  
            Liberties and the Constitution to the list of days having  
            special significance; encourages all public schools and  
            educational institutions to observe this day and conduct  
            exercises remembering the life of Fred Korematsu and  
            recognizing the importance of preserving civil liberties, even  
            in times of real or perceived crisis; and requires the  
            Governor to annually proclaim January 30 as Fred Korematsu Day  
            of Civil Liberties and the Constitution.

          3)Restructures the section of the Education Code related to days  
            of special significance so as to avoid current and future  
            technical conflicts.

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires public schools to close on or for specified holidays,  
            including, January 1, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lincoln  
            Day, Washington Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Veterans  
            Day, Thanksgiving Day, December 25, all days appointed by the  
            Governor or the President for a public fast, thanksgiving or  








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            holiday, and any other day designated as a holiday by the  
            governing board of the school district; also requires, for  
            some of these specified holidays, schools to conduct exercises  
            or instruction that focus students on the purpose of that  
            holiday.

          2)Authorizes public schools to close on or for specified  
            holidays, if the governing board pursuant to an agreement  
            under collective bargaining agrees, that include Cesar Chavez  
            Day and Native American Day; also authorizes schools to  
            conduct exercises or instruction that focus students on the  
            purpose of these holidays.

          3)Requires public schools to remain open, but to celebrate  
            specified holidays with appropriate commemorative exercises;  
            these days include the anniversary of the adoption of the  
            Constitution of the United States, the birthday of Luther  
            Burbank, Susan B. Anthony Day, and the anniversary of the  
            death of Crispus Attucks (Black American Day).

          4)Designates a number of days as days having special  
            significance, when public schools are encouraged to observe  
            and conduct suitable commemorative exercises, as specified.   
            These days include the Day of the Teacher, John Muir Day,  
            California Poppy Day, Harvey Milk Day, and Welcome Home  
            Vietnam Veterans Day.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   This bill is keyed non-fiscal.

           COMMENTS  :   Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu (January 30, 1919 - March  
          30, 2005) was one of approximately 120,000 Japanese-American  
          citizens and permanent residents living on the west coast of the  
          United States at the outbreak of World War II, who were removed  
          from the communities in which they lived and imprisoned in  
          internment camps without due process.  More than 2/3 of the  
          individuals of Japanese ancestry who were imprisoned in the  
          spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States.  Korematsu  
          was born in Oakland and resided there continuously until 1942;  
          he attended public schools, including Castlemont High School,  
          from which he graduated in 1937.  He worked in his family's rose  
          nursery in nearby San Leandro, California, and later became a  
          master welder working in the Oakland shipyards.  He lost his  
          employment because of his ancestry after the United States'  
          entry into World War II in December 1941 following the Japanese  








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          attack on Pearl Harbor.

          On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt  
          authorized the forced relocation and internment of "any or all  
          persons" with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military  
          commanders to designate "exclusion zones," from which  
          individuals could be excluded.  On March 27, 1942, General John  
          L. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Area, prohibited  
          Japanese Americans from leaving the limits of Military Area No.  
          1, effectively the entire Pacific coast including all of  
          California and most of Oregon and Washington, in preparation for  
          their eventual removal to internment camps.  On May 3, 1942,  
          DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report to Assembly Centers,  
          which included Tanforan and Santa Anita race tracks where  
          internees were housed in horse stalls; internees were later  
          removed to one of ten internment camps, the majority of which  
          were located in the high desert or mountains of the interior  
          West, where they were held behind barbed-wire fences guarded by  
          armed military personnel and were housed in, according to the  
          War Relocation Authority, "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple  
          frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any  
          kind."  Heating fuel was scarce, and food, rationed out at a  
          daily expense of 48 cents per internee, was served by fellow  
          internees in a mess hall seating 250-300 people.

          Fred Korematsu refused the May 3rd evacuation order and went  
          into hiding in the Oakland area; he was later arrested in San  
          Leandro on May 30, 1942.  He was subsequently held in the  
          stockade at the San Francisco Presidio for more than two months,  
          was held at the Tanforan Assembly Center, was tried and  
          convicted of violating the military orders issued under  
          Executive Order 9066 in federal court on September 8, 1942, and  
          was eventually moved with his family to the internment camp at  
          Topaz, Utah.  During his trial he was defended by an attorney  
          from the northern California branch of the American Civil  
          Liberties Union.  His case was appealed to the U.S. Court of  
          Appeals, which upheld the original verdict in January of 1944,  
          and to the United States Supreme Court, which in a 6-3 decision  
          issued in December of 1944 held that compulsory exclusion,  
          though constitutionally suspect, is justified during  
          circumstances of "emergency and peril".  In 1944, two and a half  
          years after signing Executive Order 9066, President Roosevelt  
          rescinded the order; the last internment camp was closed by the  
          end of 1945.  After release from camp, Korematsu moved to Salt  








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          Lake City and later to Detroit, Michigan; subsequently he  
          resettled in the Oakland area. 

          In the early 1980s, after President Jimmy Carter rekindled  
          national interest in the internment by appointing a special  
          commission to investigate the plight of Japanese-Americans  
          during World War II, researchers in California uncovered  
          evidence that the Solicitor General of the United States, who  
          argued Korematsu v. United States before the Supreme Court, had  
          deliberately suppressed reports from the FBI and military  
          intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens  
          posed no security risk, that the military had lied to the  
          Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had knowingly and  
          willingly made false arguments.  

          In 1983, as a result of this evidence, the U.S. District Court  
          in San Francisco formally vacated Korematsu's conviction.   
          Korematsu in a statement to U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel  
          said, "I would like to see the government admit that they were  
          wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again  
          to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color."  He  
          continued, "If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the  
          one pardoning the government for what they did to the  
          Japanese-American people." 

          In 1988, Congress passed, and President Ronald Reagan signed,  
          legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the  
          United States government and awarded formal payments of $20,000  
          each to the surviving internees-60,000 in all.  In 1998  
          Korematsu was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the  
          highest civilian honor in the United States; in making the  
          award, President Bill Clinton said, "In 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."  Throughout the latter part of his life, Fred  
          Korematsu continued to speak out in favor of the protection of  
          constitutional rights and civil liberties, and against issues  
          such as racial profiling.  After September 11, 2001 when some  
          Americans of Middle-Eastern descent were being detained or  
          arrested, and when other prisoners were detained at Guantanamo  
          Bay for a long period of time without due process, Korematsu  
          filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court and  
          warned the Justices not to repeat the mistakes of the Japanese  








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          internment.  Fred Korematsu said that "No one should ever be  
          locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity,  
          or religion as a spy or terrorist.  If that principle was not  
          learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these  
          are very dangerous times for our democracy."  Nearing the end of  
          his life he offered this advice: "protest, but not with  
          violence, and don't be afraid to speak up. One person can make a  
          difference, even if it takes forty years."

          This bill requires the Governor to proclaim January 30 as Fred  
          Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, and  
          designates January 30 as a day having special significance.   
          This bill does not result in additional average daily attendance  
          or funding for a school district, nor does it result in an  
          additional holiday or day of school closure.  The designation of  
          a day of special significance simply triggers statutory  
          encouragement for public schools to observe the day and to  
          conduct commemorative exercises suitable to the day, as  
          specified in law; however, the decision as to whether to observe  
          any day of significance or to conduct suitable commemorative  
          exercises is left to the local district.  If this day is  
          observed, then suitable exercises would recognize Fred  
          Korematsu's life and accomplishments, as well as the  
          contributions that he made to this state and country.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087  
          FN: 0004288