Internees Face Long Wait for Funds

Many Japanese-Americans interned during World War II and eligible for tax-free payments of $20,000 each under legislation approved Thursday by Congress may have to wait years to collect the money.

The attorney general will be allowed one year after President Reagan signs the bill and Congress appropriates start-up funds to identify and find an estimated 60,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry who were sent to prison camps in 1942. About 24,000 of those eligible are believed to live in California.

“The attorney general shall identify and locate each eligible individual, without requiring any application,” the legislation says.

May Send Documents

Under the law, former internees who are entitled to the compensation may send documentation to the attorney general as soon as the President signs the bill, probably in the next two weeks. Later, the attorney general will designate an official in the Justice Department to receive these submissions.

The Justice Department will acknowledge receipt of the documents and compile a roster of individuals entitled to the special compensation for violation of civil liberties.

As part of his responsibilities in administering the new program, the attorney general is also directed to conduct a “public awareness campaign” to encourage everyone who is eligible to submit documentation of their incarceration.

Because Congress may not approve funds to begin the program until early next year, no actual payments to individuals are expected before January, 1990, congressional sources said Friday.

Yearly Funds Limit

Another delaying factor is the limit on yearly payments of $500 million that Congress wrote into the legislation, meaning that it will take at least three years to complete distribution of the $1.25 billion approved for the internees.

In acting to make the payments Thursday, Congress considered the report of a federal commission appointed to study the internment. The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians found that the evacuation of Japanese-Americans was not justified for national security reasons, and it concluded that the action resulted from racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a lack of political leadership.

Congress, anticipating difficulties in tracking down some of the eligible individuals, authorized a 10-year period for making payments, if necessary. “So it could take anywhere from three years to 10 years to finish the job,” said one congressional aide who worked on the bill.

‘A Lot of People’

A Justice Department spokesman said that no procedures to certify eligibility have been worked out yet but that the process could be carried out by a new unit created for this purpose. “It’s going to require a lot of people,” the spokesman said, adding that the department needs a new congressional appropriation to begin work.

Extensive records in the U.S. government’s archives on the relocation camps, which existed in several Western states from the spring of 1942 to January, 1946, would help determine who is eligible for payments.

In addition, the Washington-based Japanese-American Citizens League is expected to help find persons who would benefit under the law.

According to the legislation, individuals must be alive on the day the bill is signed into law to have a vested right in a $20,000 payment. If they die before receiving the money, however, it may be paid only to a spouse of at least one year.

Can Go to Children

If there is no spouse, the money can be divided equally among surviving children. If there are no children, the sum can be split equally among surviving parents.

The law will require all recipients of the $20,000 to waive any other claims against the United States stemming from the wartime internment. Some Japanese-Americans, who have filed lawsuits against the government, already have said that they will refuse to accept the payments so that they can continue to press their separate claims.

Two members of the House who were interned, Reps. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose) and Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), voluntarily sacrificed their right to the $20,000 payments by voting for the legislation that authorized them.