Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988

Asian America

by Leslie T. Hatamiya

In 1982, a congressional commission concluded that the incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II resulted from racism, war hysteria, and failed political leadership. Against long odds, the commission's recommendation that the U.S. government offer financial redress became law on August 10, 1988, when President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. This book is a case study of the political, institutional, and external factors that led to the passage of this controversial legislation. Based on extensive interviews with Senators, members of Congress, key members of their staffs, and lobbyists, as well as statistical analyses of roll call votes, this book provides a uniquely rich account of the passage of a federal law. It also places the campaign for redress in the broader theoretical context of the workings of Congress and the policy-making process.—Publisher description.

287 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A concise legislative history of the Redress Movement. Hatamiya says the book will focus on the process of passing HR 442 through Congress and getting it signed into law. That’s what the book does. I am interested in the testimony/narrativizing process, which is not really taken up in this book.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leslie T. Hatamiya, 1993

The book starts out with a timeline of events and an explanation of what the book is about, then goes into the actual wartime experience of the Japanese Americans. including the anti-Japanese prejudice, the outbreak of war, the evacuations and internments, the JACL, etc.

Chapter 2 deals with how Congress works. Chapter 3 is entitled Chances for Success. This goes into the politics of the Japanese-American community and the redress movement along with opposition to redress. Chapter 4 is a detailed analysis of a Conference Report on redress (in considerable detail).

Chapter 5 is about the Commission on Wartime Relocation and their report Personal Justice denied. Chapter 6 deals with the Democrats recapturing the Senate in an election and what this had to do with the redress movement. Chapter 7 is about how four Japanese-American Congressman were involved in the redress movement. The next chapter concerns the Aleutian Islanders and how they were part of the redress movement.

Chapter 8 goes into the Japanese-American community after the release from the camps and onward and how they gradually became involved in the redress movement. The rest of the book deals with yet more details about what happened in relation to the bill, an appendices, and a section of notes.

For those who are interested in the legal and Congressional details of the redress movement than this is a valuable book; for others, you'd probably want to skip it.