One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.
Fred KorematsuRead
All of them turned their backs on me at that time because they thought I was a troublemaker.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the isolation faced by individuals standing up against injustice, often branded as troublemakers by society.
Fred Korematsu's quote captures the profound loneliness and resilience of individuals who, in standing up for what they believe is right, may find themselves ostracized by those around them. It highlights the struggle against societal norms and the courage required to confront injustice, even when it leads to personal loss and alienation.
In practice
A speech about social justice at a rally.
One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.
As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing.
I lost everything when they put us in prison. I was an enemy alien, a man without a country.
Every day in school, we said the pledge to the flag, 'with liberty and justice for all,' and I believed all that.
I'm Asian, so they assumed I'm not an American and that I come from Japan. Restaurants would refuse to serve me, and places would refuse to give you a haircut.
My folks were so worried about what they were going to do. All they can take was what they could carry with their hands. What they had for twenty-five years of building their business was going to go out the door, or they're going to lose it.
Soldiers, when committed to a task, can't compromise. It's unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage, absolute loyalty to others, not letting the task go until it's been done.
There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.
I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it. I'm therefore not a pacifist at all - or am I?
Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.
The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery
Whatever may be my feelings of personal gratitude to the Navy of the United States, I feel myself under still greater obligations to them for the honor they have done to the American name in every part of the globe.
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