One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.
Fred KorematsuRead
I lost everything when they put us in prison. I was an enemy alien, a man without a country.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the profound loss of identity and belonging experienced by those unjustly imprisoned due to their heritage.
Fred Korematsu's quote encapsulates the emotional and psychological trauma of being labeled as an enemy alien during wartime. In his case, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II stripped him of his rights, freedoms, and sense of belonging, illustrating the devastating impact of discrimination and injustice on individual identity and community.
Themes
IdentityInjusticeBelongingDiscriminationTrauma
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to emphasize the importance of standing against racial discrimination in a speech.
More from Fred Korematsu
All quotes βAs 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.
Fred KorematsuRead
All of them turned their backs on me at that time because they thought I was a troublemaker.
Fred KorematsuRead
Every day in school, we said the pledge to the flag, 'with liberty and justice for all,' and I believed all that.
Fred KorematsuRead
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.
Fred KorematsuRead
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.
Fred KorematsuRead
Similar quotes
If my body dies, let my body die, but do not let my country die.
Genghis KhanRead
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.
Stokely CarmichaelRead
Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence , apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today.
Wangari MaathaiRead
Tonight, savagery in the streets of Iraq. Ten Americans die in a single day, four of them civilians murdered, mutilated and dragged through the streets....What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy it may be, for some, the only job they can find.
Dan RatherRead
People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.
George BestRead