Sixty-nine years ago, Fred T. Korematsu was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro for defying an order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt that ultimately led to the evacuation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. 

Today, 11 years after Korematsu's death, California celebrates his life and legacy. 

For Korematsu's daughter, Karen, the day is bittersweet. 

"I have to admit, it's sad and happy," Korematsu said. "Sad because my father isn’t here to see all this. I think he would really be amazed."

Korematsu described her father as "a very humble person" who "never sought the limelight." 

Last year, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that makes Jan. 30, which was Fred Korematsu's birthday, a state-wide holiday. It marks the first time in U.S. history that an Asian-American is officially recognized with his own day.

Korematsu grew up in Oakland and was the third of four sons born to Japanese immigrant parents. His parents ran a flower nursery on Edes Avenue in Oakland.

At the time he was arrested, Korematsu had been working at the Oakland docks. He had previously attempted to enlist in the U.S. National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard, but both both turned him down. The government had become suspicious of Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. 

Five months after the bombing, on May 30, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the government permission to force people of Japanese decent into internment camps. 

Korematsu refused to go and was arrested three months later.

He was later convicted in federal court of violating military orders and forced to live with his family in horse stalls at the Tanforan Race Track Assembly Center in San Bruno, then at the desert internment camp of Topaz, Utah.

Korematsu appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him by saying his incarceration was a military necessity. 

His conviction was formally overturned in U.S. District Court in 1983 after a special commission appointed by President Jimmy Carter concluded that Japanese-Americans were wrongfully incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.

Even after his conviction was overturned, Korematsu continued to advocate for the civil rights of others who he felt had been discriminated against by U.S. law, including the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. 

His main focus, according to his daughter, had always been on education.

"He wanted to be sure that what happened to the Japanese-Americans wouldn’t happen to another ethnic group just because they looked like the enemy," Karen Korematsu said.

President Bill Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. Korematsu died in 2005 at the age of 86.

Fred Korematsu's wife, Kathryn, still lives in San Leandro in the family's home in Fairmont Terrace. She is 89 years old.

As Kathryn and Fred Korematsu aged, Karen began traveling with them to her father's speaking engagements to help out.

Korematsu and the Asian Law Caucus co-founded the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education in April 2009. The San Francisco-based foundation has been working to create curriculum about Korematsu, the Japanese-American internment camps, and other civil rights issues for K-12th grade classrooms.

“What we try to do is not only tell my father’s story but also how it relates to civil liberties and the constitution today,” said Korematsu.

The curriculum guide can be downloaded from the Institute's website.

In the past months, the Institute has received requests for the curriculum from all across the state, said Korematsu.

Despite the huge education effort, Korematsu recognizes that her father's life and legacy are unknown to many. 

"It’s going to take some time to educate people and have them become aware of the significance."

Bay City News contributed reporting.