[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 78 (Monday, April 22, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17667-17669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-9505]



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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

28 CFR Part 74

[Order No. 2017-96]


Redress Provisions for Persons of Japanese Ancestry

AGENCY: Department of Justice.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Justice hereby proposes a change to the 
regulations governing redress provisions for persons of Japanese 
ancestry. This change will amend the standards of the Civil Liberties 
Act of 1988 to make eligible for payments of $20,000 those persons who 
were born after their parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated from the 
prohibited military zones of the West Coast of the United States as a 
result of military proclamations issued pursuant to Executive Order 
9066. This change will also make eligible for redress those persons who 
were born outside the prohibited military zones in the United States 
after their parents were released from internment camps during the 
defined war period and

[[Page 17668]]

whose parents had resided in the prohibited military zones on the West 
Coast immediately prior to their internment. In practice, this 
amendment will make potentially eligible those persons who were born 
after their parents were evacuated, relocated, or interned by the 
United States Government, and who could not legally return to their 
parents' original place of residence within the prohibited military 
zones on the West Coast.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before June 6, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Office of Redress 
Administration, P.O. Box 66260, Washington, DC 20035-6260.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Tink D. Cooper or Emlei M. Kuboyama, Office of Redress Administration, 
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, P.O. Box 66260, 
Washington, DC 20035-6260; (202) 219-6900 (voice) or (202) 219-4710 
(TDD). These are not toll-free numbers.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-383 (codified at 
50 U.S.C. app. 1989 et. seq., as amended) (``the Act''), enacted into 
law the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and 
Internment of Civilians established by Congress in 1980. See Commission 
on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act, Pub. L. No. 96-
317 (1980). This bipartisan commission was established: (1) To review 
the facts and circumstances surrounding Executive Order 9066, issued 
February 19, 1942, and the impact of that Executive order on American 
citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry; (2) to 
review directives of United States military forces requiring the 
relocation and, in some cases, detention in internment camps of these 
American citizens and permanent resident aliens; and (3) to recommend 
appropriate remedies. The Commission submitted to Congress in February 
1983 a unanimous report, Personal Justice Denied, which extensively 
reviewed the history and circumstances of the decisions to exclude, 
remove, and then to detain Japanese-Americans and Japanese resident 
aliens from the West Coast, as well as the treatment of Aleuts during 
World War II. The final part of the Commission's report, Personal 
Justice Denied Part 2: Recommendations, concluded that these events 
were influenced by racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of 
political leadership, and recommended remedial action to be taken by 
Congress and the President.
    On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil 
Liberties Act of 1988 into law. The purposes of the Act were to 
acknowledge and apologize for the fundamental injustice of the 
evacuation, relocation, and internment of Japanese-Americans and 
permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry, to make restitution, 
and to fund a public education program to prevent the recurrence of any 
similar event in the future.
    Section 105 of the Act makes the Attorney General responsible for 
identifying, locating, and authorizing payment of redress to eligible 
individuals. 50 U.S.C. app. 1989b-4. The Attorney General delegated 
these responsibilities and duties assigned to her to the Assistant 
Attorney General for Civil Rights, who, in keeping with precedent, has 
designated the Office of Redress Administration (``ORA'') in the Civil 
Rights Division to carry out the responsibilities and duties mandated 
by the Act.
    The ORA is charged with identifying and locating persons eligible 
under the Act. To date, restitution has been paid to a total of 79,832 
Japanese-Americans and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry.
    In the preamble of the final regulation, the Civil Rights Division 
stated that ``while children born in assembly centers, relocations 
[sic] camps and internment camps are included as eligible for 
compensation, the regulations do not include as eligible children born 
after their parents had voluntarily relocated from prohibited military 
zones or from assembly centers, relocation camps, or internment 
camps.'' 54 Fed. Reg. 34160 (1989). A number of these persons asserted 
claims for redress based on their parents' evacuation or internment by 
the United States Government prior to their birth and their subsequent 
inability to legally return to their parents' original place of 
residence in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast. However, 
based on section 108 of the Act and 28 CFR 74.4, ORA found these 
persons ineligible for redress. In all, approximately 900 persons who 
were born after their parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated from the 
prohibited military zones or after their parents were released from 
internment camps claimed compensation under the Act. Most of these 
claimants were born prior to midnight on January 2, 1945, the effective 
date of Proclamation No. 21, which rescinded the prohibited military 
zones on the West Coast and lifted the general exclusion restrictions 
on persons of Japanese ancestry. ORA's denial of redress to these 
claimants was upheld during the administrative appeal process set forth 
in 28 CFR 74.17 and in some decisions of the U.S. Court of Federal 
Claims. See Ishida v. United States, 31 Fed. Cl. 280 (1994); Tanihara 
v. United States, 32 Fed. Cl. 805 (1995). However, the United States 
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently determined that ORA's 
policy of denying such claims was inconsistent with the terms of the 
Act. Ishida v. United States, 59 F.3d 1224 (Fed. Cir. 1995); Consolo v. 
U.S., No. 94-5150 (Fed. Cir., July 10, 1995) (unpubl.).

II. Revised Interpretation

    In order to conform to these recent decisions, the Civil Rights 
Division proposes to revise its interpretation regarding the 
eligibility for redress of persons who either were born after their 
parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated from the prohibited military zones on 
the West Coast or who were born after a parent had been evacuated from 
the prohibited military zones on the West Coast and interned. 
Specifically, the regulation would reverse the Civil Rights Division's 
current policy of denying redress to such persons who were prevented by 
law from returning to a parent's original place of residence in the 
prohibited military zones on the West Coast, and who are otherwise 
eligible under these regulations.
    The appellant in Ishida was born on November 23, 1942, in Ohio, 
after his parents had voluntarily evacuated from California in March 
1942. His claim of deprivation was based on his inability to return to 
California during World War II. The Department's determination of 
ineligibility was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. 
However, as mentioned above, on July 6, 1995, the U.S. Court of Appeals 
for the Federal Circuit reversed, holding that persons such as Ishida, 
who were excluded by law ``from the parents' original place of 
residence or the family home'' in a prohibited military zone were 
deprived of liberty as a result of the laws and orders specified in the 
Act and were eligible to receive compensation under the Act. In the 
companion case, Consolo, the court affirmed the trial court, holding 
that for the reasons set forth in Ishida, the appellee, who was born in 
Utah on April 11, 1943, after her parents had voluntarily evacuated 
from California in March 1942, was also eligible to receive redress 
under the Act.
    The Civil Rights Division proposes that it be guided by certain 
principles in applying the modified standard discussed above. First, 
the Civil Rights

[[Page 17669]]

Division proposes to apply the standard not only to persons similarly 
situated to the plaintiffs in Ishida and Consolo, who were born after 
their parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated the prohibited military zones 
on the West Coast pursuant to military proclamations, but also to 
persons who were born after their parents had been evacuated from the 
prohibited military zones on the West Coast and interned. These latter 
persons, who were born outside of the prohibited military zones after 
their parents were released from internment camps, also could not 
return to their parents' original places of residence in the prohibited 
military zones on the West Coast. Because, consistent with the Federal 
Circuit's reasoning, persons in this category can also be deemed to 
have been deprived of liberty, based solely on their Japanese ancestry, 
as a result of certain Federal Government actions, the Civil Rights 
Division proposes to make redress available to them. Accordingly, 
redress will be made available to persons born outside of the 
prohibited military zones after their parents were interned where at 
least one parent's original place of residence immediately prior to his 
or her internment was in the prohibited military zones of the West 
Coast. However, this change will not affect those persons born outside 
of the prohibited military zones after their parents were released from 
internment camps during the defined war period where such parents had 
resided outside of the prohibited military zones on the West Coast 
immediately prior to their internment.
    Second, the Civil Rights Division proposes to limit eligibility 
under this policy to claimants born prior to January 3, 1945, the 
effective date of Proclamation No. 21 (midnight on January 2, 1945). 
Proclamation No. 21 lifted the general restrictions that had prevented 
persons of Japanese ancestry from returning to their original places of 
residence in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast. 
Accordingly, persons born on or after January 3, 1945, could legally 
return to their parents' original residence on the West Coast.
    Historical evidence indicates that persons of Japanese ancestry 
were, in fact, allowed to return to the West Coast without any 
restrictions as early as December 17, 1944, the date on which 
Proclamation No. 21 was issued and the War Department publicly 
announced the lifting of the general exclusion orders. In addition, on 
December 18, 1944, the Secretary of the Interior issued a press release 
stating that the blanket exclusion orders for persons of Japanese 
ancestry on the Pacific Coast were revoked. Moreover, War Relocation 
Authority (``WRA'') records indicate that 26 people of Japanese 
ancestry left WRA internment camps and returned to California between 
December 17, 1944 and January 3, 1945. However, because the 
proclamation might not have been fully implemented or fully publicized 
at the time of its issuance, ORA will not use the earlier date of 
issuance but will use the effective date of Proclamation No. 21.
    Third, the West Coast is defined as those geographic areas in the 
State of California, the western portions of Washington and Oregon, and 
the southern portion of Arizona, where persons of Japanese ancestry 
were initially required to reside and later barred from entering, 
pursuant to several proclamations. Proclamation No. 4 prohibited 
persons of Japanese ancestry from leaving parts of the West Coast while 
the United States Government was preparing to forcibly evacuate them. 
Subsequent proclamations were issued to exclude those of Japanese 
ancestry from these defined West Coast areas. For example, persons of 
Japanese ancestry were excluded from Military Area No. 1 pursuant to 
Proclamation No. 7, dated June 8, 1942, and excluded from the 
California portion of Military Area No. 2 pursuant to Proclamation No. 
11, dated August 18, 1942.

III. Regulatory Impact Analysis

    The Attorney General has determined that this proposed rule is not 
a significant regulatory action under Executive Order No. 12866, and 
accordingly this proposed rule has not been reviewed by the Office of 
Management and Budget.

List of Subjects in 28 CFR Part 74

    Administrative practice and procedure, Aliens, Archives and 
records, Citizenship and naturalization, Civil rights, Indemnity 
payments, Minority groups, Nationality, War claims.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble and by the authority 
vested in me, including 28 U.S.C. 509 and 510, chapter I of title 28 of 
the Code of Federal Regulations is proposed to be amended by revising 
part 74 to read as follows:

PART 74--CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT REDRESS PROVISION

    1. The authority citation for Part 74 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 50 U.S.C. app. 1989b.

    2. In Subpart B, section 74.3 is amended by adding paragraph (b)(9) 
to read as follows:

Subpart B--Standards of Eligibility


Sec. 74.3  Eligibility determinations.

    (a) * * *
    (b) * * *
    (9) Individuals born after a parent had been evacuated, relocated, 
or interned pursuant to paragraph (a)(4) of this section, and whose 
parent's or parents' original place of residence was in the prohibited 
military zones on the West Coast on or after March 2, 1942, and who 
could not legally return to their parent's or parents' original place 
of residence in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast prior 
to January 3, 1945. This also includes those individuals who were born 
after a parent had ``voluntarily'' evacuated pursuant to paragraph 
(b)(3), and whose parent's or parents' original place of residence was 
in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast immediately prior to 
their evacuation, and who could not legally return to their parent's or 
parents' original place of residence in the prohibited military zones 
on the West Coast prior to January 3, 1945.
* * * * *
    Dated: April 9, 1996.
Janet Reno,
Attorney General.
[FR Doc. 96-9505 Filed 4-19-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-10-M