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Date:
My Representative in the U.S. Congress:
Honorable ___________________________________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Honorable________________________________:
I am writing to ask that you, as my representative
in Congress, be a co-sponsor and actively seek the passage
of the Wartime Parity and Justice Act of 2005 (H.R. 893, introduced
this session by Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA-31), that will 1)
provide full funding for the public education mandate of the
Civil Liberties Act; 2) provide redress for those Japanese
Americans who suffered deprivation of liberty due to the U.S.
internment, but were denied redress under the Civil Liberties
Act of 1988; and 3) ensure redress equity for the former Japanese
Latin American internees.
Public Education Funding: Public education
is an essential component of redress. It is only with continuing
education that the recurrence of such civil and human rights
violations can be prevented. The Civil Liberties Act was passed
with the expectation that $50 million would go to public education
about this tragic episode in U.S. history. However, the government
failed to invest the redress funds as required by the Civil
Liberties Act, and an estimated $200 million was lost in interest.
As a result, only $5 million was spent for public education
and research grants, which lasted only one year. Without an
ongoing fund, the educational curricula will soon become technologically
obsolete, and the truth will be forgotten. The U.S. must fulfill
its original commitment to the $50 million, so that future
generations will know the complete history of this shameful
era and not allow such fundamental injustice to be repeated
to any others.
Redress Equity for Japanese Americans:
The World War II story of the U.S. government's massive violation
of civil liberties of more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese
ancestry is well known. While the majority of affected Japanese
Americans have received redress, hundreds of Japanese Americans
who were deprived of liberty have wrongly been denied justice
and have not received redress. Denied individuals include:
U.S. residents denied redress due to legal technicalities
and narrow interpretations of the law; dependent children
of railroad and mine workers who were fired from their jobs
and made destitute by U.S. government actions; and those U.S.
citizens of Japanese ancestry who were born within the barbed
wire fences of the U.S. internment camps after June 30, 1946.
(The Civil Liberties Act's time limitation was based on erroneous
internment camp closing dates.)
Redress Equity for Japanese Latin Americans:
During World War II, the U.S. government forcibly uprooted
over 2,200 Latin American citizens and residents of Japanese
ancestry from their homes in Peru and 12 other countries in
Latin America, and incarcerated them in prison camps in the
U.S. More than 800 Japanese Latin Americans served the government's
purpose for the scheme: they were exchanged for U.S. civilian
prisoners held by Japan. When the war finally ended, most
of the Japanese Latin Americans were not allowed to return to their native countries,
but were deported to war devastated Japan, where they endured
starvation conditions, tremendous hardship, and trauma.
A class action lawsuit filed in federal
court in 1996 resulted in a settlement in which the U.S. government
acknowledged its wrongdoing in a letter of apology, but provided
only $5,000 in redress payments. Part of that settlement agreement
explicitly allowed for further action by Congress to fund
JLA redress, in light of the fact that Japanese Americans
were awarded $20,000 under the Civil Liberties Act. JLAs deserve
to have their records corrected to remove the false label
of "illegal entry" stamped in their U.S. immigration
records by the very same government which had kidnapped them,
and to receive redress at least equal to that received by
other persons of Japanese ancestry who were wrongfully imprisoned
by the U.S. government.
Please let me know that you will act to
support the righting of this terrible wrong.
Sincerely,
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