Phone Line Set Up for Ex-Internees
The Justice Department Monday set up a toll-free number for Americans of Japanese ancestry to call about restitution payments for their internment by U.S. authorities during World War II.
An Office of Reparations Administration has been established in the department’s civil rights division to identify, find and pay individuals eligible for $20,000 restitution payments under the Civil Liberties Act passed last month.
Calls will be answered from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. EDT Monday through Friday, at 1-800-228-8375. Correspondence may be addressed to Office of Reparations Administration, P.O. Box 66260, Washington, D.C. 20035-6260.
Eligibility regulations are now being developed, and any information the office receives now will help expedite payments after Congress appropriates the funds, according to Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds.
Under the law, about 60,000 of the Japanese-Americans interned in the United States between 1942 and 1945 will be eligible for the $20,000 payment. The payments are not expected to begin until January, 1990. Those eligible are living ex-internees and immediate family members of those who have died.
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