Redress for Japanese Americans
The Lengthy Process of Redress for Japanese Americans After the surprise attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States grew concerned that people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast would revolt and aid the Japanese war effort and were considered security risks. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the War Department authority to establish military areas in which designated people would be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War may impose. As a result, officials declared the entire Pacific Coast a military area and forced approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent from their homes and into guarded relocation centers in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. Two-thirds of the evacuees were American citizens and many lost their homes and businesses as a result of the internment. The directive remained official policy until December 1944 (Patton 72). While many people have at least some knowledge of this Japanese internment, the postwar Japanese American effort to win redress, and its high point of the 1980s, is not that well known. The process of apology and redress was very drawn out and it was not unti
's Executive Order 9066 to formally repeal it (Daniels 90). They asked for personal justice in the form of an apology from the United States and monetary compensation for individuals. As Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said in an apology to the Japanese Americans, "By finally admitting a wrong, a nation does not destroy its integrity but, rather, reinforces the sincerity of its commitment to the Constitution and hence to its people. In the 1970s, Nisei and Sansei (second and third generation Japanese Americans) spearheaded the Redress Movement, seeking personal justice for every Japanese American imprisoned during World War II. By examining how fragile civil rights were in the face of war hysteria, it might preclude the same from happening to others in the future. Congress appointed a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians during President Carter's term to investigate the charges. In forcing us to re-examine our history, you have made us only stronger and more proud" ("Making Amends" 19). " However, "in elevating race over citizenship and maligning an entire people as treasonous by nature, General DeWitt was expressing sentiments held by many citizens" (Raskin 117). In 1948, President Truman signed the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act allowing reimbursements for losses of property. 25 billion Act was finally funded in 1990, and the more than 65,000 surviving internees began receiving one-time compensatory checks for $20,000 as well as a letter of apology from President Bush recognizing that "serious injustices were done to Japanese-Americans during World War II" (Cohen 93). The Patriot Act gives search and seizing authority to federal law enforcement allowing them to search, investigate, detain, and wiretap whomever they choose without court approval. None of the internees had been charged with a crime, given the right to counsel, or provided a chance to establish his or her loyalty to the United States. "These victims of wartime hysteria spent an average of 900 days in captivity, held as retribution for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor" (Maga 606).
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