Hero’s Medal, Sister’s Letter Played Role in Redressing Old Wrong

It was 1988, and strategists were on the final leg of a lengthy campaign to redress a grave injustice committed against Japanese-Americans during World War II.

A propitious opportunity arose when then-President Ronald Reagan and then-New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean spent several days touring the Garden State. Because Kean supported redress legislation, strategists had asked that he give his reasons to the President while they rode together in a limousine.

Kean, now president of Drew University in Madison, N.J., recalled in a recent interview: “Not only did I say why I favored the legislation, but I was asked later to pass on a letter that had a personal touch and included what the President did years ago.”

The letter’s author, Fountain Valley resident June Masuda Goto, told of her brother, Staff Sgt. Kazuo Masuda, who was killed in action in Italy during World War II. The letter reminded the President how he, as a young, retired Army captain, had joined Maj. Gen. Joseph (Vinegar Joe) Stilwell in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to the Masuda family on Dec. 9, 1945.

“I had already given Kean the letter and asked if he would please bring this up with the President,” said U.S. Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose), one of the architects of the redress bill. “Our thinking was how to get President Reagan involved, and this was one of those things where you try everything you can.”

History does not record what influence, if any, Goto’s letter had on Reagan. At the time, his Administration opposed the legislation calling for a formal apology and $20,000 in restitution to each survivor of the internment camps.

But later, when he signed HR 244 on Aug. 10, 1988, Reagan referred to Masuda’s medal.

It was a proud moment for Goto, who was interned along with her family at a camp in Jerome, Ark., and thousands of other Japanese-Americans. Goto was invited to Washington to witness Reagan’s signing of the historic bill, by top legislators who helped promote redress efforts, including U.S. Sens. Daniel K. Inouye and Spark M. Matsunaga, both Democrats from Hawaii, and California Reps. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) and Mineta.

The signing of the redress bill culminated efforts that began almost two decades earlier, when the late Edison Uno, a community leader of San Francisco and a columnist for the Pacific Citizen, a publication of the Japanese-American Citizens League, first proposed the idea of reparations for Japanese-Americans.

The redress movement had many fronts. Among them:

* Based on new evidence that the Justice Department misled the U.S. Supreme Court about the loyalty of Japanese-Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor, lawyers reopened in 1983 the cases of three Japanese-Americans, who were convicted during the war of resisting the internment.

The plaintiffs--Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui--won decisions that overturned their convictions.

Dale Minami, a San Francisco attorney who coordinated the appeals, said the cases helped drum up support for redress: “To me, it was really an unusual coordination of the Nisei experience and Sansei energy and know-how,” he said.

* In March, 1983, a class-action lawsuit was filed by 19 survivors of internment camps against the United States to provide restitution to all 120,313 people of Japanese descent who were interned during the war. William Hohri, 64, of Chicago, a retired computer programmer who was the lead plaintiff, argued that the suit was significant because it defined the issue of redress in terms of “legal and constitutional” injuries and remedies.

Oral arguments were presented before the U.S. Supreme Court in April, 1987, but redress legislation by that time had begun moving through Congress. The high court dismissed the case in November, 1988.

* The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, established by Congress in 1980, held hearings, with testimony from 750 witnesses. In 1982, the commission issued a report that said Japanese-Americans were wronged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which excluded them from designated military areas.

The report concluded that the forced evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, rather than being military necessity, was instead a product of “race prejudice, war hysteria and the failure of political leadership.”

The commission estimated that, adjusted for inflation, the lost property and income of Japanese-Americans amounted to $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion in 1983 dollars.

The first redress payments were sent in October, 1990, accompanied by an apology from President Bush that said: “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 right of individuals. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese-Americans during World War II.”

Next month, 50,000 cases will have been settled and $1 billion will have been dispersed, said Robert Bratt, administrator for the Office of Redress Administration. Only a dozen of the checks have been returned, he said.

The government estimates there are 75,000 cases of redress payments, but the Office of Redress has approved funding for up to 62,500, Bratt said. Additional funding is pending.