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NCRR Statement on Redress for Japanese Americans
This is the official position of the grassroots organization that won redress and reparations, the National Coalition of Redress/Reparations from 1980. The NCRR continues today in Los Angeles as Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress - ed.
On July 12, 1980, individuals and organizations from Japanese communities from throughout the nation met and formed the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations (NCRR). The NCRR is an active coalition coordinating a nationwide campaign for justice.
The NCRR has two major aims: (1) To seek restitution for losses and injuries suffered by Nikkei (persons of Japanese ancestry) and others who were unjustly evacuated and incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II, and (2) to seek preventive steps to insure that similar racist acts and violations of constitutional rights will never occur again.
On November 15, 1980, the NCRR sponsored a conference that presented educational, cultural and legal workshops. Over 400 attendees developed strategies for future activities around the campaign for redress and formally adopted principles of unity.
Background to the Redress/Reparations Issue
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the immediate evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 Nikkei.
The U.S. government used the pretext of "military necessity" to justify the racist imprisonment of the Japanese, the majority being U.S. citizens. No such roundup of Germans and Italians occurred. For the next four years, Japanese lived in barracks under military guard. The ten concentration camps which housed them were located in the most desolate and remote areas of the United States.
Aside from what they carried in by hand, all personal possessions were left behind. Homes, farms and businesses were lost; bank accounts were frozen; educational and career opportunities were disrupted; and cultural and community ties were destroyed. An estimate by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank stated that $400 million worth of property losses alone occurred, expressed in 1942 dollars.
In Alaska, the government conducted a similar crime in the evacuation of natives of the Aleutian Islands. Here again, "military necessity" caused the Aleuts to be taken from their homes and interned in abandoned fish canneries and mines which lacked medical and sanitary facilities. When finally released, they found their historic communities destroyed.
The thin excuse given for the Japanese internment was that of security, suspicion of disloyalty and possibly espionage. Yet, not one Japanese was ever proven to be engaged in such acts and reparation has never been made for the suffering brought by the incarceration.
Principles of Unity and Goals of the NCRR
