Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (film)

Documentary film by Eric Paul Fournier that chronicles the story of American civil rights hero, Fred Korematsu , whose refusal to obey orders prohibiting Japanese Americans from remaining on the West Coast led to a landmark Supreme Court case .

Of Civil Wrongs and Rights tells the story through interviews with Korematsu and a wide variety of others including family members, his original lawyer Ernest Besig and several of the lawyers who worked on his coram nobis case, historians and other academic experts, and contemporary civil rights lawyers. There is no narrator; key landmarks and dates are conveyed through titles and photographs. Fournier uses archival footage and photographs, along with some historic re-enactments of key scenes.

The film begins and ends with the presentation by President Bill Clinton of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Korematsu. The first half of the film covers the events of the World War II period: the attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent run up to Executive Order 9066 , Korematsu's decision to resist exclusion and his eventual capture by authorities, his first trial and conviction, and his Supreme Court case. The second half of the film covers the coram nobis case, with lawyers Peter Irons , Dale Minami , and Don Tamaki and Judge Marilyn Hall Patel providing a blow-by-blow account of the proceedings. (Notably missing is Justice Department lawyer Victor Stone.) In the last segment of the film, Korematsu's continuing activism is cited (at the time the film was made, he was alive and active in the community), and the various key players along with contemporary civil rights lawyers weigh in on the significance of the case.

The film's funders included both the federal Civil Liberties Public Education Fund and the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , along with a variety of foundations and other donors. Other documentary films that examine this story include Unfinished Business: The Japanese American Internment Cases (1985) and Fighting for Justice: The Coram Nobis Cases (1999).

Might also like Unfinished Business: The Japanese American Internment Cases (1985); A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the United States (1992); Fighting for Justice: The Coram Nobis Cases (1999)