The Fight for Reparations in the Japanese and African American Communities

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The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 allowed reparations for Japanese Americans illegally detained by the United States Government during World War II. Many assumed that the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 would help African American attain reparations for slavery. Legislation introduced in Congress each year since 1989 to create a commission to study the effects of slavery and segregation, has never been addressed as a serious issue. The fight for reparations in both the Japanese and African American communities have followed the same path of legal action, community support, public debate, and political actions helping to open a dialogue regarding reparations in the United States. Japanese Americans filed continuous legal action against the United States Government for reparations plus punitive damages in the form of class action lawsuits. The Japanese Americans class action lawsuits against the United States Government sought reparations for the imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese American after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II. The lawsuits requested that the United States Government acknowledge that Japanese Americans were harmed as a group based on their race and that they should be paid for the economic loss suffered because of their race. Even though many lawsuits were filed and denied in the United States Federal Courts Japanese Americans decided to work as a unified as a community in seeking reparations. ( The Children of the Camps Project., 1999). After ten years of legal action and no progress on their fight for reparations, the Japanese American community held public forums to get the entire community involved in the fight for reparations. They worked to educate the Japanese community about the injustices and inhu... ... middle of paper ... ...ican and Japanese Americans communities have both filed many lawsuits for reparations but to no avail. Japanese Americans worked to educate the community about the injustices and inhumanities suffered by the Japanese during World War II. The African American community held conferences and symposiums to bring awareness to the issue on college campuses. Public awareness brought attention to the injustices suffered by Japanese and African Americans at the hand of the United States Government. The fight for reparation in both the Japanese and African American community should help to open dialogue regarding reparations in the United States. Works Cited The Children of the Camps Project. (1999). Retrieved 05/02/2010, from http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/timeline.html Robinson, R (2002). The Reckoning What Blacks Owe to Each Other. New York: Plume Books.

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