Waiting for the right time to start Redress Movement

Lack of political power led to camps Results of being more American than Japanese Family separated in the camps Feeling imprisoned at camp World War II hysteria against Japanese in New York City Institutionalization as a bad aspect of camp Positive experiences with Asian Americans for Action Redress payments to Issei who did not enter camps Waiting for the right time to start Redress Movement State Department records show concern for treatment of Japanese American internees Lack of support from fellow Nikkei lawyers during the war Political motivation to keep the camps open until end of 1944 election

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There was no way we could do it (Redress Movement) before [the 1980s]. We didn’t have the facts to begin with. Other things, we were so busy trying to rebuild our lives, we were afraid, if they did [this] to us one time, what’s going to keep them from putting us away again if we starting doing something like this [suing the government]? If your constitutional rights are so flagrantly violated, what kind of assurance is there that they’re not going to do something like that again? There were people I know who still felt that way at that time in 1980, ‘81, ‘82.

Date: August 26, 1998
Location: Virginia, US
Interviewer: Darcie Iki, Mitchell Maki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

redress