Google celebrates Fred Korematsu with Google Doodle

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Tuesday, January 31, 2017
A Google Doodle of civil rights leader Fred Korematsu is seen on Monday, January 30, 2017.
A Google Doodle of civil rights leader Fred Korematsu is seen on Monday, January 30, 2017.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Google is celebrating civil rights leader Fred Korematsu, with its Google Doodle on Monday.

The Oakland native was an internment camp survivor and civil rights activist.

In 1998, former President Bill Clinton awarded Korematsu with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's most distinguished civilian award.

Korematsu can be remembered fighting for civil rights and against prejudice throughout his life, famously saying: "If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up."

He passed away in Marin in 2005 and Monday would have been his 98th birthday.

The doodle by artist Sophie Diao, herself a child of Asian immigrants-features a patriotic portrait of Korematsu wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom, a scene of the internment camps to his back, surrounded by cherry blossoms, flowers that have come to be symbols of peace and friendship between the US and Japan.