California to issue an official apology for World War II Japanese internment

Gabrielle Canon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Pain of Japanese Internment Still Felt 75 Years Later Today, some Japanese Americans are drawing a comparison between the period of internment and President Donald Trump's travel ban on seven majority-Muslim countries.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, ushering in one of the darkest eras in United States history. More than 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent were forced to leave their homes and businesses and were crowded into 10 concentration camps scattered across the West.

Thursday marks the 78th anniversary of the Japanese internment, a day that has come to be known as a Day of Remembrance — but this year, California lawmakers are hoping to do more than just remember. The California Legislature is planning to pass a resolution issuing an official apology “for its past actions in support of the unjust exclusion, removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and for its failure to support and defend the civil rights and civil liberties of Japanese Americans during this period.”

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Introduced by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, who was born in Japan, the resolution details the history of racism in the state that preceded internment and the war, including the California Alien Land Law of 1913 that barred anyone of Japanese ancestry and those from other parts of Asia from purchasing or leasing land. In 1945, lawmakers issued a $200,000 grant to the attorney general’s office to prosecute Japanese Americans who may have violated the land law.

I introduced HR 77, an official apology by the Assembly for legislation actions that led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. I will be introducing the H.R. on Feb 20th as part of the annual Day of Remembrance celebrations.https://t.co/xCpkQsKT8R — Asm. Al Muratsuchi (@AsmMuratsuchi) February 10, 2020

Along with highlighting past injustices, the resolution emphasizes parallels with current policies.

"Given recent national events," the legislation reads, "it is all the more important to learn from the mistakes of the past and to ensure that such an assault on freedom will never again happen to any community in the United States."

The resolution is only an apology and doesn't include compensation or restitution. But it serves as an attempt at accountability for the role California played. Two of the 10 camps — Manzanar and Tule Lake — were located in the state, and California officials at the time pushed for the crackdown.

Muratsuchi, who each year introduces a resolution to memorialize the day, said that he hopes this will help his state lead by example.

"While our nation’s capital is hopelessly divided along party lines and President Trump is putting immigrant families and children in cages," Muratsuchi told the Pacific Citizen, a news outlet published by the Japanese American Citizens League, "the California Legislature, with HR 77 will be issuing an official, bipartisan measure for its own actions taken that led to the incarceration of over 120,000 loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry behind barbed wire.”

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