Governor Doug Ducey this week called for the implementation of an official day of recognition for justice advocate and internment camp survivor Fred Korematsu.
Ducey signed a house bill into law designating January 30th as an annual day of observance. State Senator Sonny Borrelli proposed the bill, which received bipartisan and full unanimous support among lawmakers who voted. Korematsu was an American citizen convicted of refusing military orders to enter an internment camp for people of Japanese descent. He spent five years detained in a camp in Utah and later brought his case to the Supreme Court. More than 40 years later, his original arrest was overturned. During World War II, Arizona was the site of two internment camps in Gila River and Poston.
