Fighting for justice
The "E" Company, 1943, Go for Broke National Education Center
The members of the Combat Team have made a magnificent record of which they and all Americans should be proud. This record, without a doubt, is the most important single factor in creating in this country a more understanding attitude toward the people of Japanese descent.
-former Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes
[Korematsu has been] "so throughly discredited" [that it is] "hard to conceive of any further court referring to it favorably or relying on it." "Korematsu lies overruled in the court of history." |
Fighting for justiceKorematsu’s conviction was overturned in 1983, as a result of a report named "Personal Justice Denied", demonstrating that no serious threat was posed by Japanese Americans. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, formally apologizing for the unjust actions Japanese Americans faced during World War II. The Act states that civil and constitutional rights of any group will not be violated. The American government recognized that “these actions were carried out without adequate security and without any acts of espionage or sabotage documented by the Commission, and were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” Congress has pledged to financially fund efforts to inform the public on the internment of Japanese Americans to prevent the repetition of any similar action. Despite the ongoing discrimination against many ethnic and religious groups, the 442nd Regimental taking a stand shows that although divided by race and background, citizens of a nation can stand as one. |
“I hope that the mistakes made and suffering imposed upon Japanese-Americans nearly 60 years ago will not be repeated against Arab-Americans whose loyalties are now being called into question. History is an excellent teacher, provided we heed its lessons, otherwise, we are likely to repeat them.”
-Daniel K Inouye
“We are all grateful to you for everything you have done for our country. Because of your outstanding bravery, it shines a spotlight on the wrong that was done to Japanese Americans during World War II. And you know that has had a lasting impact on the country as a whole because it reminded us that this country is built not on a particular race or religion or ethnicity, but it is based on creed and ideals that you have all followed. And so you know that what you did was important not only to the world, but it was important to reshaping how America thinks about itself. For that we are very, very thankful.” |
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"Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all one color. America stands unique in the world, the only country not founded on race, but on....an ideal." "What they did transcends their race...., They had to prove that with their blood.... We all have to remember what they went through. We can't forget." |
"I spent my boyhood behind the barbed wire fences of the American internment camps and that part of my life is something I wanted to share with more people."
-George Takei
"This is an American story and it speaks to the greatness of this nation."
-Terry Shima