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in 1942. He was then sent to the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. He then spent 40 years <br />appealing this violation of his constitutional rights. <br />On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San Francisco <br />formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu testified before Judge Patel, "I would like to see <br />the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never <br />happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color." He also said, "If anyone <br />should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to <br />the Japanese-American people." Peter Irons described Korematsu's ending statement during <br />the case as the most powerful statement he'd ever heard from anyone. He found the <br />statement as empowering as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.[33] <br />Judge Patel's ruling cleared Korematsu's name, but was incapable of overturning the <br />Supreme Court's decision. <br />President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor <br />in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the long history of our country's <br />constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: <br />Plessy, Brown, Parks ... to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu." <br />That year, Korematsu served as the Grand Marshal of San Francisco's annual Cherry <br />Blossom Festival parade. <br />Korematsu spoke out after September 11, 2001, on how the United States government should <br />not let the same thing happen to people of Middle-Eastern descent as what happened to <br />Japanese Americans. When prisoners were detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long a <br />period, in Korematsu's opinion, he filed two amicus curiae briefs with the Supreme Court and <br />warned them not to repeat the mistakes of the Japanese internment. <br />392