California AG Rob Bonta apologizes for his office’s past role in Japanese American internment during WWII

California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a formal apology Thursday, Aug. 10 on behalf of the state Department of Justice, acknowledging his office’s role in historically depriving Japanese Americans’ civil rights and liberties during World War II, calling them “heinous violations.”

Aug. 10 marked the 35th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 becoming law, which granted monetary reparations and a formal presidential apology from President Ronald Reagan to Japanese American citizens, permanent and temporary residents who were sent to U.S. internment camps during the war.

In a video and statement posted Thursday, Bonta formally apologized for the Department of Justice’s role in the incarceration of Japanese Americans, saying the office “used legal tools to deprive a generation of Japanese Californians of their liberty and financial security.”

Today, on the 35th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, my office formally apologized for its past role in the deprivation of Japanese Americans’ civil liberties during WWII.
 
The suffering caused by these actions is incalculable and the moral injustice is undeniable. pic.twitter.com/7GgVLuG4TK

— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) August 10, 2023

 

“The forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese American citizens remains among the darkest periods of our history, and the suffering it caused Japanese American families across California is incalculable,” Bonta said in the statement. “While we can never erase the horrors of the past, we must take steps to atone for past wrongs by answering the call for accountability, truth and reconciliation, racial healing and transformation.”

In 1942, former California Attorney General Earl Warren testified in support of Executive Order 9066, which incarcerated over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were living mainly on the West Coast. California had several internment camps, including Manzanar and Tule Lake.

Warren also enforced the California Alien Land Law of 1913, which allowed the Department of Justice to seize land owned by Japanese American families before, during and after the war, Bonta said. The Alien Land Law prohibited Asian immigrants from purchasing or leasing land until 1952, when the state declared it unconstitutional.

In his apology, Bonta called on people to act and stand together, amid reports of rising anti-Asian hate, racism and xenophobia.

“As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: ‘A time comes when silence is betrayal.’ The modern revival of Alien Land Laws in several states and the resurgence of anti-Asian hate across our country present such a moment,” Bonta wrote. His office hopes to “confront past errors at a time when racism, fear, and xenophobia once again threatens to assault the fundamental freedoms and rights we all share.”

State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, the Vice Chair of the California Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, was grateful for Bonta’s formal acknowledgment of “what we’ve all known… was wrong.”

“I hope that this apology for one of the most shameful episodes in American and Californian history provides at least a partial reconciliation for those who suffered from this internment, and their descendants, and also serves as a reminder of the need to be vigilant against racism and bigotry of all kinds,” Min said in a statement.

Several members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, or CAPAC, also issued statements recognizing the 35th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said his family members were among the thousands of Japanese American families who were incarcerated. He called the legislation a “step in the right direction towards addressing the pain… but anti-Asian rhetoric still lingers in our society today.”

Congressman Ted Lieu, CA-36, called the internment of Japanese Americans a “stain on our nation’s history.”

“Though no amount of financial compensation can begin to heal the wounds of these horrific actions, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 is an important step in accountability,” Lieu stated. “While we commemorate this landmark legislation, we must continue our work to speak out against all forms of injustice and build an inclusive future for all.”

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, the chair of CAPAC, recognized the work caucus members have done and continue to do in fighting anti-Asian rhetoric and racism and rhetoric. She recognized the late secretary Norman Mineta, co-founder and a former chair of CAPAC.

Mineta “led the effort to pass the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, and ensure that while this stain on our nation’s history cannot be erased, that an apology and redress were provided to Japanese American families,” Chu said.

The Japanese American National Museum in downtown LA also closed its doors Thursday in observance of the anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. In a Facebook post, officials called it “the first and only time the U.S. government publicly apologized for a mistake acknowledging that the forced removal and unconstitutional incarceration was caused by a failure of political leadership, wartime hysteria, and racism.”

But leaders also acknowledged the act’s flaws.

“The Civil Liberties Act, although a huge victory, failed to recognize the people of Japanese ancestry from Latin America who were forcibly removed from their homes and deported to the U.S. to be incarcerated,” the post read. “Over 2,200 Japanese Latin Americans were sent to American concentration camps, the majority of whom were denied redress decades later because they were considered ‘illegal aliens’ by the U.S. government. The US has also made grave injustices against Black and Indigenous communities who deserve reparations also.”