Redress movement
The Redress Movement was a campaign aimed at securing reparations for Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. This movement emerged as a response to the unjust treatment of Japanese Americans, who were forcibly relocated to internment camps under the premise of national security concerns. The federal government claimed this action was necessary to prevent espionage, although many considered it a violation of civil rights. Over the years, the movement garnered support from various organizations and individuals, leading to significant policy discussions about reparations in the U.S., a topic that has often prompted debate around racial and ethnic relations.
In 1988, the movement achieved its goal when the U.S. government acknowledged the injustices of the internment program and passed the Civil Liberties Act, which granted $20,000 to each surviving internee. This settlement was shaped by individual experiences rather than group identity, distinguishing it from other reparations discussions, such as those related to slavery. The Redress Movement not only affected the lives of those directly involved but also sparked broader conversations about justice, accountability, and the complexities of reparations in American society.
Redress movement
The redress movement sought to secure reparations for Japanese Americans who had been interned during World War II. The movement achieved its objective in the late 1980s.
The concept of reparations, although simple in principle, has been the center of complex policy debates in the United States. The United States has long supported reparations in international contexts. For example, it insisted that Germany pay war reparations after World War II and required Iraq to pay reparations after invading Kuwait in 1990. However, the matter of paying reparations to US citizens for alleged injustices has been more controversial. A number of groups, including veterans allegedly exposed to chemical defoliants in Vietnam and persons allegedly exposed to radiation in atomic tests, have pressed for reparations payments with mixed success.
The issue of reparations can have an adverse impact on racial and ethnic relations when claimants belong to a minority group and particularly when they claim that their alleged injury was sustained because of their race or ethnicity. This is the case with Japanese Americans in the redress movement. During World War II, many Japanese Americans living along the West Coast were required to surrender themselves to relocation camps. Most of their property was confiscated as well. The federal government claimed that Japanese Americans posed a threat to the national security of the United States because they might be inclined to aid and abet the Japanese government or its soldiers. This claim has been the subject of controversy for decades.
Claiming that their civil rights had been violated, groups of survivors of the internment camps subsequently pressed reparations claims against the federal government in court. Although Japanese Americans were somewhat divided on the issue, the National Council for Japanese American Redress vigorously lobbied the US Congress for reparations payments.
The government initially responded that the wartime relocation and internment program was necessary to prevent espionage and sabotage. The government alternatively suggested that Japanese Americans were placed in the relocation camps for their own safety, given that anti-Japanese sentiment was high and Japanese Americans were susceptible to racist assaults. The controversy triggered tension between Japanese Americans and White Americans in the 1970s and 1980s. Japanese Americans, including those who had not been relocated, tended to view the redress movement as a noble effort to redress a gross civil injustice of the past. Many White Americans, particularly veterans, took the view that the decision to relocate Japanese Americans was reasonable given the circumstances, and therefore they viewed any potential reparations payments to be tantamount to an undeserved apology and an insult to American veterans.
Eventually, the US government publicly acknowledged that the relocation and internment program had violated the civil rights of American citizens of Japanese ancestry. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 authorized payment of twenty thousand dollars to each surviving internee. It should be noted, however, that although the recipients had been interned on the basis of their Japanese ancestry, it was their individual injuries rather than their membership in an oppressed group that determined their eligibility for reparations payments. The settlement of the redress movement therefore is distinct from the kind of reparations for the experience of slavery sought by African Americans.
Bibliography
Hata, Donald Teruo, and Nadine Ishitani Hata. Japanese Americans and World War II: Mass Removal, Imprisonment, and Redress. 4th ed., Davidson, 2011.
Jackson, Reggie. "Redress Movement Aims to Repair Damage Caused by Decades of Racism, Discrimination in Milwaukee." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11 Oct. 2022, www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2022/10/11/redress-movement-works-healing-after-decades-racism-milwaukee/8190860001. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
Okihiro, Gary Y., editor. Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment. Greenwood, 2013.
Qureshi, Bilal. "From Wrong to Right: A U.S. Apology for Japanese Internment." National Public Radio, 9 Aug. 2013, www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278/japanese-internment-redress. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
"Redress and Reparations for Japanese American Incarceration." National WWII Museum, 13 Aug. 2021, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/redress-and-reparations-japanese-american-incarceration. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
Reeves, Richard. Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II. Holt, 2015.
Takezawa, Yasuko I. Breaking the Silence: Redress and Japanese American Ethnicity. Cornell UP, 2019.
Wolfe, Stephanie. The Politics of Reparations and Apologies. Springer, 2014.