Testimony of the JACL

              of Rights, because the Japanese American exclusion and
detention is first and foremost a living demonstration of
the supreme importance of the founding document of this
nation. While the Constitution sets out the powers of the
federal government, the Bill of Rights provides protection for
the individual citizens against the power of the government
and the democratic majority to whom the government is
ultimately responsible. As a result, the Bill of Rights encom-
passes^wccbasic kinds of measures. — first, restrictions on_the
powerwhich the le3eral^overnment carTj^glJoveTcitizens,
and, second, guarantees to thejseople- of the JLJnitejd jStaies
of limited but very irripq^ritJihprtipAanH frpp^jnmg 2 Thus,
^Congress is iorbiddenfrom passing any law_abjridjnrtg the
freedom of speech or of the press'ancTTj^Icgr^" "^Y hp,,
]S      deprived of ljfp,   liberty Of prrvppHy with™ it r\^P prnrpgc r>f
_law2T~
The concepts of the Bill of Rights are the central compact
between the federal government and the American people.
That compact rests on very fundamental presumptions about
the American people and their government. There is the root
assumption that the people of this country are law-abiding
and loyal to the institutions of the country. This is most clearly
expressed by placing on the government the burden of proof
in criminal cases. An Americanmay not be forced to give up
hisliberty or be faced with criminal fines unless the govern^
ment persuades a jury of his-peeis-that he has committed a_
"crimeTThat basic requirement cannot be set aside in the
mterests of the security of society or of the state. The corollary
to this presumption of innocence and loyalty is the i^guirej^
inent_that innocence or guilt be established on a personal
z basis*5   TThe_J^ndamental  liberties  may be  denied_to  an
American onlyiFhe himself transgressed against thejaww
not because people like him have or may have transgrgsgexL
~Tt goeswithout saying that among the basic freedoms that
we all possess are the right to live and work wherever we
chose in the United States and to follow lawful pursuits
without interference from the government.
In 1940, people of Japanese descent in the United States
were only partially admitted to this basic compact. First, no
immigrant from Japan could become a citizen of the United
States. No demonstration of loyalty to the United States
could overcome this bar. Despite the fact that no immigrants
from Japan were allowed to enter the United States after
1924,6 those residents who had lived for 15 years or more in
this country were absolutely prohibited from becoming full-
fledged members of the community and society in which
they had made their lives.7 Further, the western states had
erected laws against land ownership by Japanese nationals8
and practices of segregation and discrimination against all
ethnic Japanese were routinely followed by many people in
the Pacific states.9
This was a vicious and ugly history in California and elsewhere, but it was not entirely successful in depriving people
of Japanese descent of the benefits of American life. The
children of immigrants born in this country were citizens at
birth and disabilities visited on their parents did not apply
to them. Both the immigrant generation and the Nisei, or
second generation, believed that they could rely on the
personal guarantees of liberty and due process embodied in
the compact of the Bill of Rights.
The very core of the bill before the Committee today is
the recognitionjhat the fundamental compact between the
federal government and the American people which is
expressedin the Bill ofRights, and that the assumptions and,
presumptions which are the foundation of that charter, wgrg^
broken in the wartime treatment of the Japanese Americans.)
Because of the very magnitude of what happened — 120,000
people forced to leave their homes and livelihoods on the
West Coast and most of them held for periods of months or
years in barrack-like detention camps in the interior — it is
hard to remember that we are dealing here with individuals.
It was Mitsuye Endo and Jack Fujimoto and May Ichida who