17 February 2020 - California to officially apologize for WWII internment of Japanese Americans
California to formally apologize for Internment of Japanese Americans
Nick Visser (The Huffington Post, 16/02/2020)
California is poised to formally apologize to all Americans of Japanese heritage for the state’s role it the internment of more than 120,000 people during World War II.
The California Assembly is expected to approve a new bill, HR-77, which details a series of profound civil rights abuses perpetrated against Americans in 1942 at the height of anti-Japanese hysteria.
“The Assembly apologizes to all Americans of Japanese ancestry 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,” the text of the bill reads.
California to apologize officially for historical mistreatment of Japanese Americans
Gustavo Arellano (Los Angeles Times, 16/02/2020)
For decades, Japanese American activists have marked February 19 as a day to reflect on one of the darkest chapters in this nation’s history.
On that date in 1942, during World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the forced removal of over 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent from their homes and businesses.
It’s expected to approve, with Governor Gavin Newsom’s endorsement, a formal apology to all Americans of Japanese descent for the state’s role in policies that culminated with their mass incarceration. HR 77, introduced by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and co-authored with six others, spells out in excruciating detail California’s anti-Japanese heritage.
California to apologize for internment of Japanese Americans
The Associated Press (The New York Times, 16/02/2020)
Les Ouchida was born an American just outside California's capital city, but his citizenship mattered little after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Based solely on their Japanese ancestry, the 5-year-old and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and imprisoned far away in Arkansas.
They were among 120,000 Japanese Americans held at 10 internment camps during World War II, their only fault being “we had the wrong last names and wrong faces,” said Ouchida, now 82 and living a short drive from where he grew up and was taken as a boy due to fear that Japanese Americans would side with Japan in the war.
California's Legislature is expected to approve a resolution offering an apology to Ouchida and other internment victims for the state's role in aiding the U.S. government's policy and condemning actions that helped fan anti-Japanese discrimination.
The extraordinary trek of George Takei
Karen Heller (The Washington Post, 16/07/2019)
George Takei spent ages 5 to almost 9 imprisoned by the U.S. government in Japanese American internment camps. A relentless optimist, he believed the shameful legacy of incarcerating an estimated 120,000 Americans during World War II would never be forgotten or duplicated.
Stories fell into the sinkhole of history, given the omission of the camps from many textbooks and the shame felt by former internees, many of whom remained silent about their experiences, even to descendants. Takei takes no refuge in silence.
The “Star Trek” actor has lived long enough to see thousands of immigrant children jailed near the border. On Twitter, to his 2.9 million followers, he wrote, “This nation has a long and tragic history of separating children from their parents, ever since the days of slavery.”