Personal Justice Denied

              2. That the President pardon those who were convicted of violating the statutes imposing a curfew on American citizens. The
Commission further recommends that the Department of Justice
review other wartime convictions of the ethnic Japanese and
recommend to the President that he pardon those whose offenses
were grounded in a refusal to accept treatment that discriminated among citizens on the basis of race or ethnicity.
3. That the Congress direct the Executive agencies to which Japanese Americans may apply for the restitution of positions, status
or entitlements lost in whole or in part because of acts or events
between December 1941 and 1945.
4. That the Congress demonstrate official recognition of the injustice done to American citizens of Japanese ancestry and Japanese resident aliens during the Second World War, and that it
recognize the nation's need to make redress for these events, by
appropriating monies to establish a special foundation.
The Commission believes a fund for educational and humanitarian purposes related to the wartime events is appropriate and
addresses an injustice, suffered by an entire ethnic group.
5. That Congress establish a fund which will provide personal
redress to those who were excluded.
Appropriations of $1.5 billion should be made to the fund over
a reasonable period to be determined by Congress. This fund
should be used, first, to provide a one-time per capita compensatory payment of $20,000 to each of the approximately 60,000
surviving persons excluded from their places of residence pursuant to Executive Order 9066. The burden should be on the government to locate survivors, without requiring any application for
payment, and payments should be made to the oldest survivors
first. After per capita payments, the remainder of the fund
should be used for the public educational purposes as discussed
in Recommendation #4.
The fund should be administered by a Board, the majority of
whose members are Americans of Japanese descent appointed
by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Aleuts
The Commissioners agree that a claims procedure would not be
an effective method of compensation. Therefore, the sums in-
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eluded in the Commission's recommendations were chosen to
recognize fundamental justice.
1. That Congress establish a fund for beneficial use of the Aleuts
in the amount of $5 million. The principal and interest of the fund
should be spent for community and individual purposes that
would be compensatory for the losses and injuries Aleuts suffered as a result of the evacuation.
2. That Congress appropriate funds and direct a payment of
$5,000 per capita to each of the few hundred surviving Aleuts
who were evacuated from the Aleutian or Pribilof Islands by the
federal government during World War II.
3. That Congress appropriate funds and direct the relevant
government agency to rebuild and restore the churches damaged
or destroyed in the Aleutian Islands in the course of World War II.
4. That Congress appropriate adequate funds through the public
works budget for the Army Corps of Engineers to clear away the
debris that remains from World War II in and around populated
areas of the Aleutian Islands.
5. That Congress declare Attu to be native land and that Attu be
conveyed to the Aleuts through their native corporation upon
condition that the native corporation is able to negotiate an
agreement with the Coast Guard which will allow that service to
continue essential functions on the island.
The Commission believes that, for reasons of redressing the
personal injustice done to thousands of Americans and resident
alien Japanese, and to the Aleuts — and for compelling reasons
of preserving a truthful sense of our own history and the lessons
we can learn from it — these recommendations should be
enacted by the Congress. In the late 1930's W H. Auden wrote
lines that express our present need to acknowledge and to make
amends:
We are left alone with our day, and the time is short
and History to the defeated
May say Alas but cannot help or pardon.
It is our belief that, though history cannot be unmade, it is well
within our power to offer help, and to acknowledge error.
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