Civil Liberties Act of 1988
Senate Governmental on August 10, 1988 |
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (
The act granted each surviving internee $20,000 in compensation, equivalent to $44,000 in 2023,[2] with payments beginning in 1990. The legislation stated that government actions had been based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" as opposed to legitimate security reasons.[3] A total of 82,219 received redress checks.[4]
Because the law was restricted to American citizens and legal permanent residents, ethnic Japanese who had been
Background
Internment of Japanese Americans
The internment of Japanese Americans was the forced removal and confinement of approximately 120,000
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the continental Pacific coast region, including all of Alaska and California, and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona, except for those in government custody.[12] In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion, removal, and detention, arguing that it is permissible to curtail the civil rights of a racial group when there is a "pressing public necessity."[13]
Redress and reparations
Some compensation for property losses was paid in 1948, but most internees were unable to fully recover their losses.
On October 9, 1990, a ceremony was held to present the first reparations checks. Nine elderly Issei received $20,000 each and a formal apology signed by President George H. W. Bush. United States Attorney General Dick Thornburgh presented the checks to the attendees, dropping to his knees to reach those in wheelchairs.[14]
Payments to surviving internees or their heirs continued until 1993, overseen by the Office of Redress Administration, one of two government agencies created to carry out the 1988 act's implementation.[4] The other, the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, was established in order to meet the redress bill's provision to educate the public about the incarceration. $50 million was authorized "to sponsor research and public educational activities" in 1988, but anti-spending lobbying put the education program on hold until 1994 and reduced the final amount to $5 million. President Bill Clinton appointed an advisory board in 1996, and the CLPEF was used to fund various educational programs and grants from 1997 to 1998.[15]
Civil Liberties Act of 1988
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Restitution for World War II internment of Japanese-Americans and Aleuts, states that it is intended to:[16]
- acknowledge the fundamental injustice of the evacuation, relocation, and internment of United States citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry during World War II;
- apologize on behalf of the people of the United States for the evacuation, relocation, and internment of such citizens and permanent resident aliens;
- provide for a public education fund to finance efforts to inform the public about the internment of such individuals so as to prevent the recurrence of any similar event;
- make restitution to those individuals of Japanese ancestry who were interned;
- make restitution to Aleut residents of the Pribilof Islands and the Aleutian Islands west of Unimak Island, in settlement of United States obligations in equity and at law, for –
- injustices suffered and unreasonable hardships endured while those Aleut residents were under United States control during World War II;
- personal property taken or destroyed by United States forces during World War II;
- community property, including community church property, taken or destroyed by United States forces during World War II; and
- traditional village lands on Attu Island not rehabilitated after World War II for Aleut occupation or other productive use;
- discourage the occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future; and
- make more credible and sincere any declaration of concern by the United States over violations of human rights committed by other nations.
Congressional support and opposition
On September 17, 1987, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill (which symbolically shared its number with that of the
See also
- Day of Remembrance (Japanese Americans)
- Go for Broke Monument
- Grayce Uyehara
- Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II
- Japanese American National Library
- Manzanar
References and notes
- ^ "Spark Matsunaga". Densho Encyclopedia. June 10, 2015. Archived from the original on March 9, 2024.
- Gross Domestic Product deflatorfigures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
- ^ 100th Congress, S. 1009, reproduced at Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine internmentarchives.com; accessed September 19, 2006.
- ^ a b c Sharon Yamato. "Civil Liberties Act of 1988," Densho Encyclopedia (accessed July 16, 2014).
- ^ Court TV Library: Civil Rights Cases – Japanese WWII Internment Archived September 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Campaign for Justice". Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress. Retrieved March 12, 2007.
- ^ Various primary and secondary sources list counts between 110,000 and 120,000 persons.
- ^ Semiannual Report of the War Relocation Authority, for the period January 1 to June 30, 1946, not dated. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. Scanned image at Archived June 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine trumanlibrary.org. Accessed September 18, 2006.
- ^ a b "The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II: 1948 Chronology", Web page Archived November 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine at www.trumanlibrary.org, accessed September 11, 2006
- ^ a b Densho. "About the Incarceration" (accessed April 3, 2014).
- ^ Brian Niiya. "Voluntary evacuation," Densho Encyclopedia (accessed April 3, 2014).
- Owen Josephus Roberts, reproduced at findlaw.com, accessed September 12, 2006
- ^ Korematsu v. United States majority opinion by Justice Hugo Black, reproduced at findlaw.com, accessed September 11, 2006
- ^ Isikoff, Michael (October 10, 1990), "Delayed Reparations and an Apology", The Washington Post
- ^ Sharon Yamato. "Civil Liberties Public Education Fund," Densho Encyclopedia (accessed July 17, 2014).
- ^ "Chapter 52—Restitution For World War II Internment of Japanese-Americans and Aleuts". Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^ House Vote #304 (September 17, 1987) from GovTrack.us roll call records, accessed August 21, 2010
- ^ Senate Vote #525 (Apr 20, 1988) from GovTrack.us roll call records, accessed August 21, 2010