Funds for WWII Internees Caught in Budget Squeeze

Kou Kitano will be 100 this September, and the frail, ailing woman has lost some of her memory. But she cannot forget the years she and other Japanese-Americans spent in squalid detention camps near Los Angeles during World War II.

“My mother came to this country in the early part of this century, and was so proud to become a citizen,” said Kitano’s daughter, Chizu Iiyama. “She still has tremendous faith in this country, her country, even though a great wrong was committed.”

To correct that wrong, Congress enacted a law last year authorizing payments of $20,000 apiece to about 60,000 Japanese-Americans who were rounded up and put in camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. But now there is growing concern among former internees that the government will not actually provide the money anytime soon--and maybe not at all for elderly persons such as Kitano.

“There are many dire emergencies we’re dealing with in this country, but this program is not one of them,” said Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.), who opposed the redress law. “All of this happened 40 years ago, and I just don’t see the hurry. I don’t think there’s much inclination to make this a top priority.”

Lawmakers pledged that the redress payments would be completed within 10 years, but they must vote each year to free the necessary money. If they do not, internees have no recourse. Despite findings by a congressionally appointed panel that the relocation was motivated by racism and war hysteria, there is no guarantee that any of the money will become available.

“Congress made a promise,” said Aiko Yoshinaga, who spent nearly four years in a detention camp and now works as a consultant to the redress program. “Right now, the question is, does Congress keep its word?”

The jury is still out. In recent months, the reparations program has become embroiled in the effort to trim the still-enormous federal deficit and is competing for federal dollars with such popular causes as aid to the homeless, child-care assistance and the war on drugs.

“We’re going to have to fight for all of this money,” said Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), who ranks third in the House Democratic leadership. “Whenever it comes to appropriating funds, there’s a whole new set of problems you face. The fiscal situation we’re in really complicates things.”

“The redress effort is definitely in trouble,” added a congressional aide close to the issue. “People aren’t stepping over Japanese-American victims of internment on their way to work every day. . . . This program just doesn’t have the same kind of political pull.”

Last month, the House derailed a catchall, $4.7-billion spending bill for the current fiscal year that included $250 million to begin making reparations payments. Democrats may introduce a pared-back version of the bill this week, but the fate of the redress money remains uncertain.

Bush Pares Request

For 1990, the Justice Department, which is administering the program, asked President Bush to seek $500 million, enough to pay 25,000 internees. Instead, Bush asked Congress for only $20 million, enough to pay the first 1,000 of the 60,000 believed to be eligible for payments.

The budget resolution that is undergoing final action in Congress sets aside $100 million for reparations payments, enough to pay 5,000 individuals. However, that legislation is advisory and non-binding, and Congress is free to approve more or less.

Even the program’s most outspoken supporters concede that lawmakers could be torn when it comes to a choice between redress and other social problems.

“Do you vote to provide funds for this program at the expense of something like AIDS research?” asked Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), who himself was interned during World War II. “What do you do? It shouldn’t have to come down to that, but everything gets mixed in together.”

Meanwhile, some Japanese-American activists are losing patience. More than 200 elderly internees are believed to be dying each month. Like Kitano, about 5,000 of them are over 80, and another 11,000 are in their 70s.

Test of Faith

“Our faith is again being tested,” said Shizuko Tokushige, a San Jose-area activist for redress. “The intent of the reparations law must be respected by our government.”

Although Tokushige and other advocates are deeply skeptical about congressional intentions, they have nothing but praise for the small office that was created last year to administer the reparations program.

In less than nine months, the Office of Redress Administration, a seven-person operation in the Justice Department, has compiled a rough list of all the people who were taken to detention camps in the weeks after Pearl Harbor. Now it is attempting to locate and identify each internee who might be eligible for the $20,000 payment.

More than 73% of these individuals live in California, according to administrator Robert Bratt. The office has been greatly aided in its search by federal wartime records, which included individual files on each of the 112,000 Japanese-Americans who were placed in camps.

Bratt and his staff have to worry about more than just the surviving internees themselves. Under the law, reparations can also be claimed by the living children, spouses or parents of internees who have died but were alive on Aug. 10, 1988, the day President Ronald Reagan signed the redress bill into law.

Bratt’s job smacks of detective work. He said his staff has tracked down former internees through Social Security checks, tax refunds and motor vehicle records. It is investigating the cases of about 4,700 Japanese-Americans who voluntarily evacuated their homes before the compulsory evacuations began, as well as an estimated 5,000 U.S. soldiers of Japanese-American ancestry who may have been prevented from visiting their families in internment camps while on active duty.

In other cases, the office is trying to locate about 150 Japanese-Americans who angrily protested their evacuation and were taken to a mental institution in La Crescenta for the duration of the war. Bratt said it has been especially difficult to trace some of these individuals, since it is not clear what happened to many of them after 1945.

“These were folks who yelled or spouted off,” he said. “Since they would have otherwise been taken to one of the detention camps, they could be eligible for payments as well.”

Elsewhere, the office is trying to locate 18 children whose parents left them in a San Francisco orphanage before the evacuation. Federal officials are also reviewing the cases of about 4,000 internees who left for Japan after the war and may be eligible for payments.

Through advertisements in the Japanese-American press, the Office of Redress Administration has urged internees to come forward. Those who might be eligible for $20,000 may call 1-800-228-8375 or write to the Office of Redress Administration at P.O. Box 66260, Washington, D.C., 20035-6260.

Knowledge of Program

“We’ve had very large groups of people turn out when we visit Southern California to discuss the program,” Bratt said. “By now, I think there’s a pretty fair knowledge about the program in the Japanese-American community.”

However, activists fear that Bratt’s office will prove too small to process and review all the claims for redress payments. So far, the unit is operating with funds reprogrammed from elsewhere in the Justice Department. The catchall spending bill that became derailed in the House recently would have included $6.4 million for administrative costs in this fiscal year.

For next year, President Bush asked for $2.1 million. Bratt said that would enable the office to process no more than 300 to 500 redress cases because of substantial start-up costs for his operation. Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose), another survivor of the relocation camps, said supporters would try to increase Bush’s recommendation. But the final determination is months away.

No matter how much money Bratt’s office receives for administrative costs, it will not be able to mail out any redress payments until Congress provides it with some funds for that purpose.

As the budget battle continues, congressional supporters of the program have given up on their initial plan to appropriate a quick $350 million, enough to pay all of the internees who are 70 and older.

“I’ve made the argument that this program is a special case, because of the injustice that’s been done,” Matsui said. “But a lot of my colleagues may not see it that way. It all comes down to dollars and cents.”