hardboiled

long lost liberties

After decades of being overlooked, Japanese Latin Americans who were placed in internment camps are gaining recognition and working towards rightful compensation.

Try to remember the very first time you learned about World War II in your history class. Your memory will probably bring you to your freshman or sophomore year in high school?maybe even earlier. You most likely learned about Hitler, the Holocaust, the bombing of Pearl Harbor (perhaps even spent class time watching the classic film Tora! Tora! Tora! if you were lucky), and, to a lesser extent, Japanese American internment.

But, what's taught even less in the classroom?if at all?is the story of the internment of Japanese Latin Americans (JLAs). Personally, I became aware of these historical facts only after researching the topic online and coming across the website, www.campaignforjusticejla.com. There I learned a part of history that is not taught in our schools. You probably weren't told in your history class that JLAs faced civil and human rights violations under the hands of the US government. You probably weren't told that from December 1941 to February 1948, the US government implemented the abduction, deportation, and internment of 2,264 Japanese men, women, and children from 13 Latin American countries. You also probably weren't told that once these JLAs reached the US, they were stripped of their passports and categorized as "illegal aliens." Or that the reason why the American government seized these people was to use them as hostages against Americans held by the Japanese, or that the JLAs who were in the US were interned without the due process guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. Or that the JLAs were forced to leave the US upon their dismissal from the internment camps. Or that approximately 1,400 of them were prohibited from returning to their respective countries, causing about 900 to be involuntarily deported to a war-torn Japan. Or that of the 350 JLAs who stayed in the US and refused to be deported, only about 100 were able to go back to Latin America. Or that the rest of the JLAs were not granted the chance to become permanent residents until 1952. You probably weren't told that of the approximately 120,000 Japanese who were interned, 1,800 of them were from Peru alone. And you probably weren't told that the rising anti-Asian sentiment that was felt throughout the US?particularly between white employers and Asian immigrant employees?was just as strongly felt by the Peruvians.

Well, surprise!

Two thousand two hundred and sixty-four JLAs (according to the Campaign for Justice) experienced the same discrimination and difficulty as the Japanese Americans during World War II. According to the 1943 War Relocation Authority Report, families in concentration camps were crammed in "tar paper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind." Nor were there education, proper healthcare, or heating facilities for the winter for these internees. Food rations were low, about 45 cents per person. Some camps even became sweatshops for the US military. And after incarceration, the JLAs, like the Japanese Americans, not only lost their personal property, but also faced unquantifiable psychological and emotional damage as well.

It wasn't until 34 years after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which called for the internment of the Japanese, that President Gerald Ford acknowledged that the evacuation and internment of the Japanese was "wrong." As a result, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, propelled by the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and President Ford's apology in 1976, granted $20,000 in reparations for each internment camp survivor. But this amount mainly applied to Japanese Americans since Japanese Latin Americans (JLAs) were considered illegal aliens, despite the fact that these JLAs were brought to the United States and placed in the internment camps against their will.

The JLAs did not receive any compensation for their internment experiences until 1996 through a class-action lawsuit, Mochizuki v. USA. This resulted in a settlement of $5,000 per JLA, in exchange for the termination of the lawsuit. The settlement, however, kept open the possibility of seeking equitable redress upon further litigation. Most JLAs ended up accepting the Mochizuki settlement, but some did not and filed lawsuits. Four cases were filed but eventually dismissed. Due to these four unsuccessful attempts, efforts turned to avenues outside of the judicial system. The three Shibayama brothers (who filed a lawsuit in 1999), in conjunction with the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, made a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in June 2003. The goal of the petition was to acknowledge the US's failure to provide reparations for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that the government committed.

Efforts by local Congressmen are also taking place to provide justice for the JLAs. In 2000, Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA), eventually joined by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), introduced The Wartime Parity and Justice Act which addressed the issue of Japanese Peruvian inequitable reparations. The bill was addressed again in 2003 and 2005, but lacked the momentum to pass. Then, in 2006, Inouye and Becerra proposed the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent Act (S 381 and HR 662.) This bill called for a commission that would meet to investigate the JLA internment causes and effects and measure the responsibility that the US has for committing such war crimes and crimes against humanity. Upon such findings, the commission would then make appropriate recommendations. Inouye and Becerra reintroduced the bill in 2007, this time recruiting the assistance of Christine Oh and Van Luong, legal aides to Becerra and Inouye, respectively.

With new and capable team members on board, the Campaign for Justice (CFJ), established in 1996 in El Cerrito, plans to push for this bill again this year in full force. The organization has two main goals: to attain equitable compensation for the JLAs through litigation, and to educate the American public about this issue. One method that the CFJ plans to implement is to earn the support of Japanese American Republicans.

The CFJ is currently supported by the Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project. If you want to be involved with this cause, you can contact your Congressional Representative by writing a letter, sending an email, calling, or faxing your concerns. Or visit www.campaignforjusticejla.org to get more information about what you can do to help.