Supreme Court Landmarks | Loaded Weapon | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Through most of 1941, as fighting raged across Europe, the United States held back from entering the war. That all changed in December, when Japanese fighter planes bombed Pearl Harbor and the nation found itself mobilizing for World War II. Suddenly, the frenzy to fight enemies abroad turned to suspicion against those at home.

President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the military the power to detain and permanently jail over 110,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. But three young detainees would defy their fate.

Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayshi and Mitsuye Endo would challenge the U.S. policy of Japanese internment and bring their cases all the way to the Supreme Court — pitting the wartime powers of the United States against the constitutional rights of American citizens.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:10.0	Imagine it's a bright Sunday morning in December 1941.
0:23.5	You're 21 years old.
0:25.2	You parked the car at the top of a hillside, looking down on the San Francisco Bay and you
0:29.4	kneel to share a blanket with your fiance.
0:32.6	Music plays from the car radio.
0:34.6	She flips through a newspaper while you look at the ocean below.
0:37.8	Maybe we should move up to Washington State.
0:40.0	Maybe?
0:41.0	I asked Walt if he knew whether Japanese could marry white women up there.
0:44.0	He said he didn't know.
0:45.0	Well, Walt doesn't know everything.
0:47.4	Maybe there's a number we could call.
0:49.6	Like, uh, hello, yes, I'd like to find out where your state stands on racial intermarriage,
0:54.4	please.
0:55.4	You try and chuckle, but all you can manage is a smirk.
0:58.9	The two of you have been dating for three years, but when you got engaged, both your
1:02.9	family and hers objected.
1:04.9	Ah, it's gonna be crazy.
1:07.0	A Japanese American man and an Italian American woman both had the word American in them.
1:12.3	There shouldn't be any problem.
	...

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