California lawmakers on Thursday became the first political leaders in the nation's most populous state to apologize for discriminating against Japanese Americans and helping the U.S. government send them to internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II.

The Assembly unanimously passed the resolution and welcomed several people who were imprisoned in the camps and their families. Several lawmakers gave somber statements and gathered at the entrance of the chamber after the vote to hug and shake hands with victims like 96-year-old Kiyo Sato.

Sato said young people need to know about the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps during the war."We need to remind them that this can't happen again," she said.

The resolution came a day after Govornor Gavin Newsom declared a Day of Remembrance for Feb. 19, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 that led to the imprisonment of Japanese Americans across 10 camps in the U.S. West and Arkansas.

The governors of Idaho and Arkansas also proclaimed it a Day of Remembrance, and events are held nationwide. "During the years leading up to World War II, California led the nation in fanning the flames of racism," said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who was born in Japan.