U.S. Delivers 1st Checks to Japanese-Americans Interned During War

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh today gave nine of the oldest Japanese-Americans interned during World War II checks for $20,000 and a letter signed by President Bush apologizing for their wrongful detention.

The presentations to a group of elderly men and women that included a 107-year-old retired minister were made at an emotional ceremony at the Justice Department that evoked the painful memories of the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans in 1942.

Mamoru Eto, 107, of East Los Angeles, a retired minister, delivered an invocation in Japanese. His son David, 59, said his father was “very excited” to make the trip to Washington to participate in the ceremony.

The younger Eto said his father “basically feels the government is making an effort to be fair.”

The checks were the first to be issued. Others will be paid over the next three years to an estimated 65,000 survivors of the internment, which was ordered during World War II as a national security measure.

Ceremonies will be held in Los Angeles on Friday and in eight other cities during the week to distribute more checks to Japanese-Americans eligible to receive compensation.

Thornburgh crouched on bended knee to hand the $20,000 checks to several of the recipients, who were mostly seated in wheelchairs.

Decades of lobbying by Japanese-American organizations culminated in today’s ceremony.

“A monetary sum and words alone cannot restore lost years or erase painful memories; neither can they fully convey our nation’s resolve to rectify injustice and to uphold the rights of individuals,” Bush said in the letter handed to each of the recipients.