Post+War+Impact

=Post War and Impact of Today=

//Overview:// What happened to these people once the camps were closed? How were they treated by others? What did they come home to and what did they end up losing because of the events of Pearl Harbor? Could this happen again in the United States?

//Postwar Resettlement:// Those who carried the burden of the resettlement after the internment were the Nisei generation (second-generation, American-born Japanese Americans). As they watched the injustice of their parents they became active citizens and fought to claim their rightful place in America. Once they returned home they found what was, was vandalized and even marred with racial comments. Many of the farmers found their field in shambles or neglected or lost to new owners. Throughout the 1950’s many of the Japanese American were faced with unemployment and housing discrimination. They were denied basic civil rights such as usage of recreational area and retail service. Basically they had to start their lives over and have become very successful people.

//Civil Right Movement:// During the social justice movements, many Sansei (third-generation Japanese Americans) and Nisei, along with other people of color realized that their history and culture were missing from the educational curricula. Educating all about the events that took place at the internment camp became a pilgrimage for the Japanese American. The Sansei began to realize the impact Constitutional violations and injustices that their parents and grandparents lived. Just like anyone who has lived in a difficult situation getting the Issei (first-generation immigrant Japanese) and Nisei to share their experience was a difficult road for them to travel. Many felt shame, humiliation and shame that they have experienced as a child.

//Redress and Reparation://
 * In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation to create the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC). The CWRIC was appointed to conduct an official governmental study of Executive Order 9066, related wartime orders and their impact on Japanese Americans on the West Coast and the Aleutians in the Pribilof Islands.
 * In 1983, the CWRIC issued its findings in PERSONAL JUSTICE DENIED, concluding that the incarceration of Japanese Americans had not been justified by military necessity.
 * The Commission recommended legislative remedies consisting of an official Government apology; redress payments of $20,000 to each of the survivors; and a public education fund to help ensure that this would not happen again.
 * On August 10, 1988, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, based on the CWRIC recommendations, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
 * On November 21, 1989, President George Bush signed an appropriation bill authorizing payments to be paid out between 1990 and 1998.
 * In 1990, surviving internees began to receive individual redress payments and a letter of apology.

//Court Victories:// Three major court case were challenged in the 80’s A legal team led by Sansei (third-generation Japanese American) attorneys filed the "Coram Nobis" cases, based on newly discovered government records which documented the Justice Department’s deliberate suppression of evidence in the original cases. The petitions for a "writ of error coram nobis" asserted that there were several fundamental errors made by officials of the War Department at the time of the original trial. These included: altered and destroyed evidence; and suppression of evidence by both the War Department and the Justice Department regarding the loyalty of Japanese Americans. The petitions found that the Supreme Court decisions of the 1940s had been based on the misrepresentation of available facts and on the deliberate suppression of evidence. The "coram nobis" victories provided official evidence of how groundless the Government’s justification of "military necessity" had been.
 * Hirabayashi v. United States (1943),
 * Yasui v. United States (1943)
 * Korematsu v. United States (1944).

//Ongoing Impact:// The stigma of shame and guilt associated with internment has been resolved for some and for others, it has lingered or had indirect impact on their offspring, the Sansei and Yonsei, (fourth-generation Japanese Americans) who continue to search for a sense cultural identity and historical integrity.

//Remembrance:// February 19, 1942, the date that Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has been commemorated annually as a "Day of Remembrance" (DOR) in many communities and campuses for about two decades. This event has been turned into a day of celebration of the courage, dignity and persistence of the internees.

//Can it Happen Again?//

History should be taught so that the events of the past do not repeat itself. However, we can see from these examples that the events of the past are repeating.
 * September 11, 2001, and the subsequent war in Afghanistan, many Arab Americans -- and those who may appear to resemble Arab Americans -- have been subject to great suspicion and even acts of serious violence.
 * Wen Ho Lee case, A federal grand jury indicted him of stealing secrets about U.S. nuclear arsenal for the People's Republic of China (PRC) in December 1999. They were only able to charge Lee with improper handling of restricted data, one of the original 59 indictment counts, to which he pleaded guilty as part of a plea settlement. In June 2006, Lee received $1.6 million from the federal government and five media organizations as part of a settlement of a civil suit he had filed against them for leaking his name to the press before any formal charges had been filed against him. Federal judge James A. Parker eventually apologized to Lee for denying him bail and putting him in solitary confinement, and excoriated the government for misconduct and misrepresentations to the court. He has spoken out against racial profiling since this event took place.
 * China's downing of a US spy plane in 2001, a local radio talk show host in Springfield, IL urged listeners to boycott all Chinese restaurants and suggested that all Chinese living in America should be sent "home" to "their country".

What is our government during about this injustice to the people of United States? Norman Mineta, a former internee and now a member of the President’s Cabinet -- recognized and warned against the potential for scapegoating Arab, South Asian, Muslim and Sikh Americans. And spoke to President Bush about educating people about what happened in the Internee camps.

The questions we are continuing asking each other is when will we learn from the past and make this world a better place for everyone, no matter their color or race.

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