On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which authorized a presidential apology and payment of $20,000 to every survivor of the World War II incarceration camps that confined 120,000 Nikkei. The legislation was the culmination of a sometimes contentious redress movement that began in 1970. Overcoming the reluctance of many Nisei who did not want to invite controversy, activist Nikkei and some non-Nikkei allies worked to gain an admission of wrongdoing and monetary recognition for the forced removal and confinement of the Issei and Nisei. Assisting the cause were legal teams who discovered federal attorneys had withheld evidence in the 1943 Supreme Court case that upheld the legality of the incarceration camps. A congressional panel, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), heard testimonies from former detainees around the country before recommending an apology and payment. Hundreds of individuals lobbied congress while Nisei legislators advanced the redress bill through congress. In October 1990, the first redress payment was made to the oldest survivor of the World War II incarceration camps.
Issei man receiving his redress check（1990）
Seattle, Washington
Courtesy of Densho, the Akio Yanagihara Collection
Excerpt from Densho Archive
First of all, we said we're going to do education in our own community. For instance, for the Nisei, we set up tables in Japantown, right on First Street. Oh, I tell you, it was hard. These Nisei ladies would say, "What's going on? What is this?" And we would say we have all this literature. The Nisei would look at the papers. They'd say, "Oh, no. Don't start this. We don't want to get hassled again by the government. We had enough of that, they put us in camp and everything. And now you guys are talking about redress? Oh, god, give me a break." And they would be totally hostile. But we kept at it, every weekend we would have the tables out there and we'd be talking to more Nisei. "Come one, come on out and sit here with us. Talk to other Nisei." We wanted Nisei to talk it out, talk about it. And you know what? The more they did, the more angry they got. And pretty soon, they're saying, "Really, how true. There's nothing to be ashamed of. We don't have to be embarrassed. We don't have to be intimidated.” And we worried about our kids. So what? If the kids don't like it, they have to know where they came from. If they don't like what we're doing, they'll come around to it. We used to say that. And it's so true because we used to go to college campuses. We talked and talked and talked more to students, and they would say, "Yeah, I didn't realize that this is what our parents went through. I mean, that's terrible." And the more they became open to it, the more the parents became open to going out and doing it more aggressively. So I tell you, it took time. We had to go to all the different community meeting and talk about it. It was okay after a while, but in the beginning, it was, "Don't even talk about it. I want nothing to do with it."
incarcerated at Jerome, Arkansas, worked for redress in Los Angeles