NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

SAN LEANDRO—Underneath blue skies and a brilliant sun, the San Leandro community gathered to celebrate the dedication of the new San Leandro High School Fred T. Korematsu (9th grade) Campus on Sept. 24.

More than 250 guests attended, including the current Board of Education and former board members, elected officials, civic leaders, students and families, district staff, neighbors, and the Korematsu family.

The program included brief remarks from Board of Education President Mike Katz-Lacabe; Board Facilities and Technology Committee Chair Pauline Cutter; Yes on Measure B Co-Chairs Deborah Cox (who is also chair of the Citizens’ Oversight Committee) and Leroy Smith; Sen. Ellen Corbett and Assemblymember Mary Hayashi, who each presented the campus with a proclamation; Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker; Alameda County Superior Court Judge Dennis Hayashi, who was part of Fred Korematsu’s legal team in the 1980s; SLHS Principal Linda Granger; and Superintendent Cindy Cathey.

The special guest speaker was Karen Korematsu, daughter of the civil rights hero for whom the campus was named. She regaled the audience with personal stories of her father and her warm acknowledgement of how moved he would be by the honor of having a building named after him.

“My father was a structural engineer,” she said, “and he would have been so impressed by the angles and curves of this building. He would have loved this!”

On behalf of the Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education, Ms. Korematsu presented to student leadership, the superintendent and Associate Principal Mike Hassett a framed and inscribed photographic portrait of her father wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In December 2009, the SLUSD Board of Education voted to name the campus after Mr. Korematsu. Several in the community suggested naming the campus after the humble civil rights leader, noting his deep commitment to social justice and his dedication to the San Leandro community, including his 30-year service through the San Leandro Lions Club.

Korematsu was 22 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the military to require all Japanese Americans be removed from designated “military areas” and placed in internment. Korematsu refused to go and was later arrested in San Leandro, where his family owned a nursery. He was convicted of violating the wartime order and sent to the Topaz internment camp in Utah.

With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Korematsu filed a lawsuit arguing that his constitutional rights had been violated, but the court ruled against him. He appealed his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction in 1944, stating that his internment was due to military necessity and “not … because of  hostility to him or his race.”

It took 40 years for Korematsu to clear his name. After a legal team had his case reopened in 1983 on the basis of new evidence, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel overturned his conviction, ruling that the U.S. government had knowingly lied to the Supreme Court by stating that Japanese Americans had committed acts of espionage and sabotage.

In 1998, Korematsu was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton. Until his death in 2005, Korematsu continued to speak out against all manner of injustice. In the aftermath of 9/11, when the government claimed authority to detain both citizens and non-citizens indefinitely and without charge as “enemy combatants,” he saw the dangerous parallels to his own experience and in 2004, he filed an amicus curiae brief in the case of Rumsfield v. Padilla, which stated, “by allowing the Executive Branch to decide unilaterally who to detain, and for how long, our country will repeat the same mistakes of the past.”

“I am so inspired by the powerful and heartfelt messages conveyed by the family of Fred T. Korematsu at the dedication ceremony,” said Superintendent Cathey. “In our district and in our city we now have a beautiful, permanent place of learning named after a humble civil rights hero. This campus will serve as a constant reminder of what we must do as educators in the service of all of our students.”

She added that like the family and friends of Korematsu, San Leandro teachers and staff, and community must never give up in righting wrongs and standing up for what is just, “so that his legacy will live on through each of us and be embodied in the day-to-day actions of each of our students.”

About the Building

The vision for the new school began with conversations in early 2006 about how to address urgent school facilities needs, such as deteriorating restrooms, roofs and overcrowding at the high school. In November 2006, San Leandro voters passed a $109 million school facilities bond that would address some of the major — but not all — of the district’s facilities needs.

Through a series of community forums, the board prioritized critical needs. With overcrowding at the high school and pressing modernization issues, some needs could not be addressed. “In discussing overcrowding at the high school, we realized we had an opportunity to partner facility needs with program needs,” said Cathey.

Designed by WLC Architects, the bold, artistic lines and attention to detail were seen as a perfect match for the bold, innovative idea of having a fully inclusive campus dedicated to ninth-grade students. The classroom building contains 29 classrooms, the office and reception area, and a beautiful library. Each classroom is equipped with SMART Board technology, and the science labs were described by Karen Korematsu as being college-level.

The campus also has a state-of-the-art serving kitchen, an outdoor seating area for lunch, a mini amphitheater and courtyard, and a gymnasium with the San Leandro High School pirates logo painted on the floor in vibrant colors.

Green materials were used throughout the building; design elements that take full advantage of natural light and high efficiency heating and cooling systems make this school an energy and resource efficient environment that contains

the amenities that promote quality education in a healthy environment.