In a controversial 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Fred Korematsu, a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent, was guilty of violating a military ban on Japanese residence in various areas of California, pursuant to the provisions of Executive Order 9066.

Korean immigration to North America remained relatively small until U.S. and Canadian immigration reforms in the 1960s eliminated racial limitations on entrance.

As prime minister during World War II (1939–45; see World War II and immigration), King largely reflected Canadian ethnic attitudes toward immigrants.

The election of John F. Kennedy, a Catholic of Irish descent, as president in 1960 marked both an ethnic victory—80 percent of both Catholics and Jews voted for him, but only 38 percent of Protestants—and the beginning of the end of the old age of European immigration.