Reagan Backs Revised Bill to Compensate Internees

President Reagan on Tuesday urged swift approval of a compromise bill providing compensation payments of $20,000 to Americans of Japanese descent who were interned during World War II, saying that the measure would “close a sad chapter in American history.”

The President’s endorsement of the historic measure, expressed in a letter to House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) and House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), signaled his approval of changes in the legislation on which the House is scheduled to vote today.

Reagan, who has said little about the legislation in the past, declared Tuesday that the current measure is “substantially improved over the versions of the bill” that had previously been considered. The compromise measure was approved by the Senate on July 27.

Disbursed Over 10 Years

According to the compromise worked out by both houses of Congress, $1.25 billion in tax-free payments would be disbursed over a 10-year period to those Japanese-Americans who were interned during the war. About 60,000 of the 120,000 internees are alive and eligible for the payments.

The measure specifies that the payments will go to those alive on the date of enactment of the measure. Under the original version approved by the Senate in April, payments would have been made to each survivor alive on the date of compensation.

The original version also prohibited payments to heirs and descendants of an internee, but the compromise allows such payments to certain heirs of internees who die after the date of enactment but before distribution of the funds.

The measure was combined with separate legislation providing $21.4 million in compensation for Aleuts who were evacuated from the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands off Alaska in 1942. Each of the approximately 450 eligible people would receive $12,000, and the rest of the funds would pay for damages to the Aleutian Islands.

Anti-Japanese Sentiment

The Japanese-American internment began in 1942, during the wave of anti-Japanese sentiment that swept the nation after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The federal government, reflecting fears of an invasion on the West Coast, required the mandatory evacuation from the area of all individuals of Japanese ancestry, saying they might be security risks. A Senate report said that more than 77,000 of the evacuees were American citizens. Many were forced to sell all their belongings, often on 72 hours’ notice.

In his letter, Reagan said he was “particularly pleased” that the bill “fully satisfies claims against the United States based on the unique circumstances of the internment.”