Law granting reparations to interned Japanese Americans
Civil Liberties Act of 1988
Enacted by
the 100th United States Congress
Citations
Public law
Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–383
Statutes at Large
102 Stat. 903
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as "Civil Liberties Act of 1987" (H.R. 442) by Tom Foley (D-WA) on January 6, 1987
Committee consideration by House Judiciary, Senate Governmental
Passed the House on September 17, 1987 (243–141)
Passed the Senate on April 20, 1988 (69–27, in lieu of S. 1009)
Reported by the joint conference committee on July 26, 1988; agreed to by the Senate on July 27, 1988 (voice vote) and by the House on August 4, 1988 (257–156)
Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1988
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–383, title I, August 10, 1988, 102 Stat. 904, 50a U.S.C. § 1989b et seq.) is a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been wrongly interned by the United States government during World War II and to "discourage the occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future". The act was sponsored by California Democratic congressman and former internee Norman Mineta in the House and Hawaii Democrat Senator Spark Matsunaga in the Senate.[1] The bill was supported by the majority of Democrats in Congress, while the majority of Republicans voted against it. The act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
The act granted each surviving internee $20,000 in compensation, equivalent to $44,000 in 2023,[2] with payments beginning in 1990. The legislation stated that government actions had been based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" as opposed to legitimate security reasons.[3] A total of 82,219 received redress checks.[4]
Because the law was restricted to American citizens and legal permanent residents, ethnic Japanese who had been taken from their homes in Latin America (mostly from Peru) were not granted reparations, regardless of whether they had remained in the United States, had returned to Latin America or had been deported to Japan after the war. In 1996, Carmen Mochizuki filed a class-action lawsuit[5] and won a settlement of approximately $5,000 per eligible person. Of those affected, 145 received their settlement before funds were exhausted. In 1999, funds were approved for the Attorney General to pay compensation to the remaining claimants.[6]
^"Spark Matsunaga". Densho Encyclopedia. June 10, 2015. Archived from the original on March 9, 2024.
^Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
^100th Congress, S. 1009, reproduced at Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine internmentarchives.com; accessed September 19, 2006.
^Sharon Yamato. "Civil Liberties Act of 1988," Densho Encyclopedia (accessed July 16, 2014).
^Court TV Library: Civil Rights Cases – Japanese WWII Internment Archived September 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^"Campaign for Justice". Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress. Retrieved March 12, 2007.
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