Congressman Pashayan

              CHARLES PASHAYAN, JR.      / "?0> .>.$«*'/**'<*
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17th District, California
COMMITTEE ON
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(202) 225-3341                                     /          I ^, ,   A ^mJ&lMmW <&& POST OFFICE AND CIVIL
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CONGRESS OP THE UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 30, 1984
Mr. Fred Y. Hirasuna
1416 West Stuart Avenue
Fresno, California  93711
Dear Mr. Hirasuna:
Thank you for your recent letter expressing your support for H.R.
4110, legislation to provide payment of compensation to Americans of
Japanese ancestry who were interned during World War II as recommended
by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians.
In 1980 the Congress authorized the Commission to investigate the
internment and relocation of civilians by the Federal government during
World War II and to recommend what compensation, if any, should be paid
to the Japanese-Americans and citizens of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands.
The Commission recently released its report entitled, "Personal Justice
Denied."  In this report, the Commission concluded and recommended a
one-time per capita compensatory payment of $20 f 000 to each of rhe
approximately 60,Ouu surviving Japanese-Americans and $5,000 to each of
"The few surviyj1ncr__Al:ejJLts_.
Congressman Jim Wright introduced legislation on October 6, 1983,
to grant a one-time per capita compensatory payment of $20,000 to each
of the surviving Japanese-Americans and $5,000 to each of the surviving
Aleuts.  This legislation, H.R._4110, has been referred to the House
Committee on the Judiciary for review.
The Commission formed its recommendations on the results of their
considerable study of the damages and losses suffered by the relocated
people.  While the Commission has not directly addressed the question of
how it arrived at the figures of monetary redress, it believed that these
amounts are quite conservative.
An independent accounting firm has estimated that, as a result of
the exclusion and detentior^in 1945 dollars, the Japanese lost between
$108 and $164 million in income and between $41 and $206 million in
property for which no compensation was madeafter the war under the
_ terms of  the Jap^"psp-Ampriran re^ag.iafinn„£2aims Act of 1948.  The
Commission concluded the amount paid under this Act, $38 million, was
far below what-^would have been full and fair coT!rpeTiBaTiio"n_J:or actual
economic losses.  The Act gave persons of Japanese ancestry the right to
claim trom the government real and personal property losses that occurred
as a consequence of the exclusion and evacuation.  These claims were
decided individually.  The Commission reported that awards settled under_
PLEASE REPLY TO:
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