Legislation Introduced to Investigate the Internment of Japanese Latin Americans
“This is a story about the US government’s arm reaching across international borders, into a populous [sic] that did not pose an immediate threat to our nation, in order to use them, devoid of passports or any other proof of citizenship, for hostage exchange with Japan,” Senator Inouye said in a press release. “It is a part of our national history, and it is a part of the living histories of the many families whose lives are forever tied to internment camps in our country.”
Originally introduced in 2006, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent Act seeks to follow up on a previous investigative body’s findings that the US government forcibly interned Japanese Latin Americans from thirteen countries.
According to a 1982 report by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, during World War II “the United States expanded its internment program and national security investigations to Latin America on the basis of ‘military necessity.’ ”
“What began as a controlled, closely monitored deportation program to detain potentially dangerous diplomatic and consular officials of Axis nations and Axis businessmen,” the report continued, “grew to include enemy aliens who were teachers, small businessmen, tailors and barbers – mostly people of Japanese ancestry.” Several thousand Japanese immigrants and their descendants in Latin American countries were rounded up by local governments and shipped to the United States.
Approximately eight hundred detained Latin Americans of Japanese descent were used in prisoner exchanges between the US and Japan. The remaining internees were declared “illegal aliens” and incarcerated in US Department of Justice camps. After the war, only a fraction of those held were able to return to Latin America, while many were deported to war-ravaged Japan. Around three hundred and fifty Japanese Latin Americans fought deportation and remained in the US.
Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA) has introduced companion legislation to Senator Inouye’s bill in the House.
“US involvement in the expulsion and internment of people of Japanese descent who lived in various Latin American countries is thoroughly recorded in government files,” Becerra said in a Washington Post op ed co-written with Rep. Dan Lungren. “These civilians were robbed of their freedom – their civil and human rights thrown by the wayside – as they were kidnapped from nations not directly involved in World War II. The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians acknowledged these federal actions in detaining and interning civilians of enemy or foreign nationality, particularly those of Japanese ancestry, but the commission failed to fully examine and report on the historical documents that exist in distant archives.”
In addition to investigating the United States government’s role in the internment of civilians during the war, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent would be charged with recommending “appropriate remedies, if any, based on preliminary findings by the original Commission and new discoveries.” Though US citizens who were interned received an official apology and indemnity in 1988, non-citizens like the Latin American internees were not eligible.
A few weeks after the introduction of Senator Inouye’s bill, the House of Representatives passed Resolution 122 in support of “the goals of the Japanese American, German American, and Italian American communities in recognizing a National Day of Remembrance to increase public awareness of the events surrounding the restriction, exclusion, and internment of individuals and families during World War II.”
Campaign For Justice, an organization dedicated to gaining redress for interned Japanese Latin Americans, has sought to educate the public about the history of internment during World War II. According to the group, the detainment of Japanese Latin Americans was “not justified by a security threat to Allied interests. Rather, it was the outcome of historical racism, anti-foreign prejudice, and political opportunism.”
The organization has also been a vocal supporter of the recently introduced legislation: “We urge our communities to support these efforts to acknowledge and redress the fundamental injustices suffered by Japanese Latin Americans during World War II. We cannot allow this chapter of American history to close until our government makes proper amends for its actions.”