Reparations to War Internees
A nation and its press wallow in self-congratulations, some Japanese-Americans shed tears of gratitude and a handful of centenarians are handed a pittance in symbolic restitution for a wrong which occurred almost a half-century ago.
Why did it take Congress 43 years after the end of World War II to enact the enabling legislation to provide for some monetary compensation for those Japanese-Americans and their families who lost businesses and homes, because of their wrongful incarceration? For that matter, why has it taken another two years to begin making payments? The majority who suffered monetary losses have of course already passed on.
Why not take this arbitrarily arrived at $20,000 portion, retroactively assign it to the date of forced detention, and calculate the current principal with compounded interest at say 6%. Or work backward from today to the date of uprooting, postulate Uncle Sam’s custodianship of restitution funds over these 40-odd years, adjust for inflation and accumulated compound interest, to arrive at a figure representing the true payout in 1945 dollars?
THAYER SMITH, Downey
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