BILL ANALYSIS AB 1775 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1775 (Furutani) As Amended May 11, 2010 Majority vote EDUCATION 8-0 ---------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, Ammiano, | | | | |Arambula, Carter, Eng, Miller, | | | | |Torlakson | | | |-----+-----------------------------+-+--------------------------| | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 1775 Page 2 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 AB 1775 Page 3 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 AB 1775 Page 4 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 AB 1775 Page 5 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