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REDRESS PAYMENTS
1990
On August 10th, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law, a legislation that granted reparations to Japanese Americans for the racial prejudice and failure of political leadership during World War II. In October 1990, President George H.W. Bush sent the first redress checks for $20,000 and formal letters of apology to the oldest surviving detainees. As part of the Redress Movement, the U.S. government strived to obtain restitution of civil rights and monetary compensation during the six decades that followed the mass confinement and removal of Japanese Americans during World War II. The U.S. government provided more than $1.6 billion in redress payments to 82,219 former camp inmates, an amount that did not compensate for their total losses.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Qureshi, B. (2013, August 09). From wrong to right: A U.S. apology for Japanese internment. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278/japanese-internment-redress
Redress and reparations for Japanese American incarceration. (2021, August 13). The National WWII Museum. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/redress-and-reparations-japanese-american-incarceration
Redress payments [Digital collection]. Smithsonian National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/righting-wrong-japanese-americans-and-world-war-ii/redress-payments
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
Great Kanto Earthquake
Internment of Japanese Americans
Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
The War Brides
Immigration and Nationality Act
Redress Payments
COVID-19 Anti-Asian Sentiment
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