Redress Writing #1

              My name is Fred Yoshlo Hlrasuna. I am an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, My
parents were Immigrants from Hiroshima, Japan. My father was admitted to the United States in
1900, my mother In 1903, I was born In Lodi, Califoria, February 11, 1908, I have lived in
California all of my life except for a period of five and one half years, during which time I and my
family were evacuated from the state, I am presently a resident of Fresno, California. I am
presenting this testimony as an individual, who, together with his entire family, suffered the
economic losses, the traumas and the hardships of evacuation. In the year, 1942, after Pearl
Harbor, I suddenly found myself in charge of, and making the hard decisions for, an extended
family consisting of my father and mother, my sister, my sister-in-law, my wife and three
children, age 6 years, 3 years, and an infant boy who was born in February of 194. 2.
In view of the number of participants who have addressed and who will address other
phases of Congressman Lungren's record, I will confine my remarks to his position against the
payment of reparations to Americans of Japanese ancestry who were interned during World War
II,
Congressman Lungren was a member of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment
of Civilians (CWRIC), a commission authorized by Congress to investigate the evacuation and
internment of some 115,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry and legal Japanese alien
residents of the United States, My understanding is that Congressman Lungren agreed with the
conclusions of the Commission: that evacuation and internment was largely the result of "race
prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership," however, he did not, and still does
not, believe that individual reparations, as recommended by the Commission, should be paid.
By his speeches and interviews, subsequent to the findings of the Commission on Wartime
Relocation and Internment of Civilians to which he agreed wholeheartedly except for the payment
of redress, he has condoned, if not justified, the actions of our government in interning Japanese
Americans because of the very war hysteria that he had previously condemned. He has justified
the non-payment of individual redress because he believes that the Evacuation Claims Act of
1948 paid all justifiable claims for loss of property, because of the precedent that it might set
for claims from other wronged minorities, and because of the present precarious fiscal condition
of the national treasury.
I believe that Congressman Lungren is an honest person and that he is sincere in his belief
that reparations should not be paid for the reasons that he has stated; however, I feel that he is
seriously flawed in his reasoning, I question his rationale for condemning the program of
individual reparations.
t