COMMISSION ON WARTIME RELOCATION AND INTERNMENT OF CIVILIANS ACT HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE NINETY-SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 1647 MARCH 18, 1980 Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 63-293 O WASHINGTON : 1980 COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS ABRAHAM RIBICOFF, Connecticut, Chairman HENRY M. JACKSON, Washington CHARLES H. PERCY, Illinois THOMAS F. EAGLETON, Missouri JACOB K. JAVITS, New York LAWTON CHILES, Florida WILLIAM V. ROTH, Jr., Delaware SAM NUNN, Georgia TED STEVENS, Alaska JOHN GLENN, Ohio CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, Jr., Maryland JIM SASSER, Tennessee JOHN C. DANFORTH, Missouri DAVID PRYOR, Arkansas WILLIAM S. COHEN, Maine CARL LEVIN, Michigan DAVID DURENBERGER, Minnesota R ic h a r d A. W e g m a n , Chief Counsel and Staff Director M a r ily n A. H a r r is, Executive Administrator and Professional Staff Member Co n st a n c e B. E v a n s , Minority Staff Director E l iza b eth A. P r ea st, Chief Clerk \ CONTENTS Opening statements: Pa^e Senator Jackson............................................................................................................. 1 Senator Inouye................................................................................................................ 1 Senator Levin.................................................................................................................. 2 Senator Matsunaga...................................................................................................... 8 Senator Mathias............................................................................................................. 15 WITNESSES March 18, 1980 Hon. Jim Wright, a Representative in Congress from the State of Texas; Hon. Norman Y. Mineta, a Representative in Congress from the State of Califor­ nia; and Hon. RoBert T. Matsui, a Representative in Congress from the State of California........................................................................................................................ 3 Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., chairman, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights .... 12 Roger Daniels, head, Department of History, University of Cincinnati............... 16 Jerry Enomoto, past president, Japanese American Citizens League; Diane Yen-Mei Wong, executive director, Washington State Commission on Asian American Affairs; William Hohri, Chair, National Council for Japanese American Redress, also, memBer, Methodist Association for Social Action, Chicago chapter; and Mike N. Masaoka, president and Washington advocate, Nisei Lobby, a panel ................................................................................................ 18 Alphabetical list of witnesses: vApaniels, Roger: Testimony........................................................................................... 16 ^Enomoto, Jerry: Testimony................................................................................................................ 18 Prepared statement, with additional material............................................. 23 OHohri, William: \ Testimony................................................................................................................ 18 Prepared statement, with attachments.......................................................... 159 \Masaoka, Mike: ' Testimony................................................................................................................ 18 Prepared statement............................................................................................... 172 Copy of hearings Before the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, House of Representatives, 77th Congress, 2d session, FeBruary 21 and 23, 1942, entitled: “ProBlems of Evacuation of Enemy Aliens and Others From ProhiBited Military Zones,” pages 11137-8.................................................................................................................. 204 “Why the Japanese Americans Cooperated,” a reprint from “The Japanese American Story,” By Budd Fukei, Dillon Press, Inc., Min­ neapolis, Minn., 1976 ....................................................................................... 207 Matsui, Hon. RoBert T.: Testimony................................................................................................................ 3 Prepared statement............................................................................................... 7 Mineta, Hon. Norman Y.: Testimony..................................................................... 3 Ajitchell, Clarence M.: Testimony................................................................................................................ 12 . Prepared statement............................................................................................... 14 Wong, Diane Yen-Mei: V Testimony................................................................................................................ 18 Prepared statement............................................................................................... 154 Wright, Hon. Jim: Testimony.................................................................................... 3 (III) IV Additional material submitted for the record: Page Text of S. 1647 ................................................................................................................ 222 Agency comments: Office of Management and Budget.................................................................. 228 Department of Justice......................................................................................... 230 Statement of Senator Alan Cranston ..................................................................... 232 Material suBmitted for the record By Senator Stevens, received from Cook, Purcell, Hansen & Henderson, Attorneys at law............................................. 233 viStatement By Hiroko Kamikawa Omato, Kensington, Md............................... 245 l^esolution suBmitted By Edward M. Tamanaha, president, the 442d Veter­ ans Club, Honolulu, Hawaii................................................................... ............... 252 Letters to Senator RiBicoff from: The Congressional Black Caucus, March 17, 1980...................................... 254 A^rthur S. Fleming, Chairman, Commission on Civil Rights, March 17, v 1980, with enclosure ........................................................................................ 255 '-Minoru Yasui, attorney at law, Denver, Colo., March 18, 1980.............. 259 \l3ienn Kumekawa, associate professor of community planning, Univer- \ sity of Rhode Island, March 14, 1980 .......................................................... 263 YTom Bradley, mayor, city of Los Angeles, with enclosure, March 12, ' 1980 ....................................................................................................................... 264 Jtfathan Perlmutter, national director, Anti-Defamation League of v z B’nai B’rith, March 26, 1980........................................................................... 271 ^George H. Outen, general secretary, Board of Church and Society, the ^U nited Methodist Church, May 6, 1980, with enclosure....................... 274 '^■fiugene V. Rostow, Yale University Law School, March 13, 1980, with enclosure.............................................................................................................. 276 vDonald H. SchwaB, director, National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars, March 14, 1980...................................................................... 352 Letter to Marilyn Harris, executive administrator and professional staff memBer, from Ed Nakawatase, Community Relations Division, Ameri­ can Friends Service Committee, Inc., March 27, 1980, with enclosure.... 353 Letter to the Hon. Walter F. Mondale, Vice President of the United States, from Marjorie L. RutenBeck, secretary of the Senate, State of Colorado, with enclosure, May 8, 1980................................................................................... 357 ^^Resolutions in support of S. 1647 from the American Legion, Department of Illinois, FeBruary 27, 1980...................................................................................... 360 COMMISSION ON WARTIME RELOCATION AND INTERNMENT OF CIVILIANS ACT TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 1980 U.S. S e n a t e , Com m ittee o n G overnmental A ffa ir s, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 2:03 p.m., in room 3302, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Henry M. Jackson presiding. Present: Senators Jackson, Levin, and Mathias. Also present: Senator Matsunaga. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR JACKSON Senator J a ck so n . The committee will come to order. Today the committee will receive testimony on S. 1647, a bill to establish a factfinding commission to determine whether any wrong was committed against Japanese Americans during World War II, pursuant to Executive Order 9066. The commission would also be charged with recommending ap­ propriate remedies, if any, for those interned. The legislation would not authorize any compensation for internees at the present time. It would establish, however, a mechanism for examining Executive Order 9066, the circumstances surrounding its implementation, and the appropriateness of compensation or other remedies for those whose lives were affected by the order. Several of the witnesses who will testify today were residents of the relocation camps during World