THE JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM SUPPORTS CALIFORNIA’S PLAN TO FORMALLY APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCARCERATION OF JAPANESE AMERICANS DURING WWII

Los Angeles, CA – The Japanese American National Museum supports the legislation brought forth by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi for California to officially offer an apology for the state’s role in aiding the US government’s policy and condemning actions that helped fan anti-Japanese discrimination. The exclusion, forced removal, and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

This apology is welcome but long overdue for the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans held at 10 concentration camps during World War II. Two of these camps, Tule Lake and Manzanar were located in California. Concentration camps were a result of racial prejudice, war hysteria ,and failure of political leadership. The US government formally apologized and paid $20,000 in reparations to each victim in 1988 but the damage had been done; many Japanese Americans never fully recovered.