The Japanese Americans and the Issue of Redress
In December 1982, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWIRC) concluded that the evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II were the result of "racism, war hysteria, and a failure of the nation's leadership". Six months later, the commission recommended that the U.S. government offer a national apology and payments of $20,000 to the surviving internees as a form of redress. On August 10, 1988, those recommendations became law when President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This paper will attempt to examine how and why redress passed, the most significant factors involved as well the arguments for and against the bills. On December 7, 1941, Japan's military dropped bombs on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The next day the United Stated declared war on Japan. The first month of the war was relatively calm. There were few cases of public panic or hysteria occurring, and Japanese Americans were treated no differently than they had been before war began. There have been newspaper accounts showing that there was a vast majority of American citizens that were sympathetic to the Japanese's plight of
With the backing of Congress and the President, General John L. DeWitt issued a series of civilian exclusion orders and public proclamations that extended to travel restrictions, curfews, and contraband regulations to all Japanese Americans, regardless of citizenship. Eventually, his orders called for all persons of Japanese ancestry in California and parts of Arizona, Washington, and Oregon to turn themselves in at temporary detention centers near their homes. The evacuation took a total of eight months, from March 24 to November 3. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to the evacuation and internment of 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans. On August 10, 1988, forty-six years later, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, awarding monetary compensation and a national apology to the surviving Japanese Americans affected by Roosevelt's wartime order, bringing to a close a shameful event in the history of the United States. Given the political reality of the situation, the president informed his cabinet and Senate allies that he was removing the veto threat. On August 10, 1988, Reagan wrote the Congress's full redress legislation into law. In a special signing ceremony, Reagan made the following statements: Executive Order 9066 and its Repercussions
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Approximate Word count = 2954
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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