[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11317]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE FORGOTTEN INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE LATIN AMERICANS

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, one of the most shameful episodes in 
our Nation's history was the internment of Japanese-Americans during 
World War II. In response, although belatedly, Congress enacted in 1988 
the law providing reparations to those who were uprooted and sent to 
internment camps.
  There is another group of people who suffered the same injustice, but 
are ineligible for redress under the law. As detailed in a recent 
article in the Los Angeles Times, more than 2,200 Japanese Latin 
Americans were taken from their homes in 13 countries, mostly from 
Peru, and brought to the United States to be detained. Most spent the 
war in a camp in rural Texas, and some were even held until 1948. The 
U.S. Government never officially acknowledged a reason for this policy. 
Since the Japanese Latin Americans were not legal residents of the 
United States at the time of their internment, they are not eligible 
for an apology or reparations. Clearly, this injustice demands a 
remedy.
  Of those who were forcibly brought to the United States, only 200 
were allowed to return to Latin America. Others returned to Japan, 
while many stayed in the United States and eventually became citizens. 
Some 300 applications by Latin American Japanese for redress under the 
1988 law have been denied because they were not legal residents before 
the law's June 1946 cutoff date.
  The article gives an account of a journey of a detention ship that in 
1944 was steaming from South America to the United States escorted by 
destroyers and submarines. In the year of the invasion of Normandy, not 
to mention the war in the Pacific, it is astounding that our Nation saw 
fit to devote military resources to this shameful and questionably 
legal undertaking.
  I have written Senator Inouye, who authored the 1988 reparations 
bill, to see if something can be done. While I will not be in the 
Senate next year, I hope that my colleagues will consider legislation 
in the next Congress to provide payments to family members of the 
Japanese Latin American who were detained. After so many years, that 
would be the right thing to do.

                          ____________________