Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
California to Apologize for Internment of Japanese Americans
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
February 18, 2020

Share

SACRAMENTO — Les Ouchida was born an American just outside California’s capital city, but his citizenship mattered little after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Based solely on their Japanese ancestry, the 5-year-old and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and imprisoned far away in Arkansas.

“We like to talk a lot about how we lead the nation by example. Unfortunately, in this case, California led the racist anti-Japanese American movement.” — Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi 
They were among 120,000 Japanese Americans held at 10 internment camps during World War II, their only fault being “we had the wrong last names and wrong faces,” said Ouchida, now 82 and living a short drive from where he grew up and was taken as a boy due to fear that Japanese Americans would side with Japan in the war.
On Thursday, California’s Legislature is expected to approve a resolution offering an apology to Ouchida and other internment victims for the state’s role in aiding the U.S. government’s policy and condemning actions that helped fan anti-Japanese discrimination.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order No. 9066 establishing the camps was signed on Feb. 19, 1942, and 2/19 now is marked by Japanese Americans as a Day of Remembrance.
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi was born in Japan and is one the roughly 430,000 people of Japanese descent living in California, the largest population of any state. The Democrat who represents Manhattan Beach and other beach communities near Los Angeles introduced the resolution.
“We like to talk a lot about how we lead the nation by example,” he said. “Unfortunately, in this case, California led the racist anti-Japanese American movement.”
Photo of Les Ouchida at the permanent exhibit titled "UpRooted Japanese Americans in World War II" at the California Museum in Sacramento
In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, Les Ouchida poses at the permanent exhibit titled “UpRooted Japanese Americans in World War II” at the California Museum in Sacramento, Calif. Ochida, who is a docent for the exhibit, was a child when his family was forced to move in 1942 from their home near Sacramento to an internment camp in Arkansas. Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrence has introduced a resolution to apologize for the state’s role in carrying out the federal government’s internment of Japanese-Americans. A similar resolution will be brought up before the state Senate by Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The Money Didn’t Come Close to Replacing What Was Lost

A congressional commission in 1983 concluded that the detentions were a result of “racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership.” Five years later, the U.S. government formally apologized and paid $20,000 in reparations to each victim.
The money didn’t come close to replacing what was lost. Ouchida says his father owned a profitable delivery business with 20 trucks. He never fully recovered from losing his business and died early.
The California resolution doesn’t come with any compensation. It targets the actions of the California Legislature at the time for supporting the internments. Two camps were located in the state — Manzanar on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in central California and Tule Lake near the Oregon state line, the largest of all the camps.
“I want the California Legislature to officially acknowledge and apologize while these camp survivors are still alive,” Muratsuchi said.
He said anti-Japanese sentiment began in California as early as 1913, when the state passed the California Alien Land Law, targeting Japanese farmers who some in California’s massive agricultural industry perceived as a threat. Seven years later the state barred anyone with Japanese ancestry from buying farmland.
The internment of Ouchida, his older brother and parents began in Fresno, California. Three months later they were sent to Jerome, Arkansas, where they stayed for most of the war.
Given their young ages at the time, many living victims such as Ouchida don’t remember much of life in the camps. But he does recall straw-filled mattresses and little privacy.

Japanese Families Always Considered Themselves Loyal Citizens Before and After

Communal bathrooms had rows of toilets with no barriers between users. “They put a bag over their heads when they went to the bathroom” for privacy, said Ouchida, who teaches about the internments at the California Museum in Sacramento.

“Even if it took time, we have the goodness to still apologize.” — Les Ouchida
Before the last camp was closed in 1946, Ouchida’s family was shipped to a facility in Arizona. When the family was freed, they took a Greyhound bus back to California. When it reached a stop sign near their community outside Sacramento, “I still remember the ladies on the bus started crying,” Ouchida said. “Because they were home.”
The resolution, co-introduced by California Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido, makes a passing reference to “recent national events” and says they serve as a reminder “to learn from the mistakes of the past.”
Muratsuchi said the inspiration for that passage were migrant children held in U.S. government custody over the past year.
Ouchida said Japanese families like his always considered themselves loyal citizens before and after the internments. He holds no animosity toward the U.S. or California governments, choosing to focus on positives outgrowths like the permanent exhibit at the California Museum that provides an unvarnished view of the internments.
“Even if it took time, we have the goodness to still apologize,” he said.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

High School Dropout to Five Decades in Congress: Charles Rangel Dies at 94

DON'T MISS

A Former Aide Says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Kidnapped Her in a Plot to Kill Kid Cudi

DON'T MISS

RIP Local Broadcast Legend Marv Allen, 80, Longtime Voice of KVPR

DON'T MISS

Trump to Pardon Reality TV’s Todd and Julie Chrisley After Tax Evasion Conviction

DON'T MISS

Westlands Leader Calls Slight Water Boost ‘Disappointing’

DON'T MISS

Republican Tuberville Announces Bid for Alabama Governor

DON'T MISS

PG&E Sees Surge in AI Data Center Interest With Fresno Area Emerging as New Hotspot

DON'T MISS

SF-Based Salesforce Is Buying Informatica in $8 Billion Deal

DON'T MISS

Fresno Unified Safety Officer Alleges Battery by District Exec. What Does PD Say?

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Authorities Arrest 45 in Parole, Probation Sweep

UP NEXT

Ireland to Press Ahead With Trade Ban on Israeli-Occupied Areas

UP NEXT

Palestinians Flock to US-Backed Aid Centers Despite Concern Over Checks

UP NEXT

Germany Threatens Steps Against Israel as Tone Shifts Over Gaza

UP NEXT

NPR Sues Trump Administration Over Executive Order to Cut Funding

UP NEXT

Far-Right Israelis Confront Palestinians, Other Israelis in Chaotic Jerusalem March

UP NEXT

Palestinians to Raise Flag at WHO for the First Time After Vote

UP NEXT

Hamas Agrees to US Proposal on Gaza Ceasefire, Palestinian Official Says

UP NEXT

18 Injured in Knife Attack in Hamburg, Report Says

UP NEXT

Justice Department Reaches Deal to Allow Boeing to Avoid Prosecution Over 737 Max Crashes

UP NEXT

Low-Income Compton Students Get $225M State-of-the-Art High School Campus

Trump to Pardon Reality TV’s Todd and Julie Chrisley After Tax Evasion Conviction

7 hours ago

Westlands Leader Calls Slight Water Boost ‘Disappointing’

8 hours ago

Republican Tuberville Announces Bid for Alabama Governor

9 hours ago

PG&E Sees Surge in AI Data Center Interest With Fresno Area Emerging as New Hotspot

9 hours ago

SF-Based Salesforce Is Buying Informatica in $8 Billion Deal

10 hours ago

Fresno Unified Safety Officer Alleges Battery by District Exec. What Does PD Say?

10 hours ago

Tulare County Authorities Arrest 45 in Parole, Probation Sweep

11 hours ago

Trump Administration Halts Scheduling of New Student Visa Appointments

11 hours ago

Trump Pardons Tax Cheat After Mother Attends $1 Million Dinner

11 hours ago

Eight More Drowning Deaths Added to Kern River Warning Signs

12 hours ago

High School Dropout to Five Decades in Congress: Charles Rangel Dies at 94

NEW YORK — Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, an outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol...

6 hours ago

Charles Rangel Obituary
6 hours ago

High School Dropout to Five Decades in Congress: Charles Rangel Dies at 94

Sean "Diddy" Combs stands as he is arraigned on a superseding indictment ahead of his May trial on sex trafficking charges, in New York, U.S., March 14, 2025, in this courtroom sketch. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg?/File Photo)
6 hours ago

A Former Aide Says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Kidnapped Her in a Plot to Kill Kid Cudi

7 hours ago

RIP Local Broadcast Legend Marv Allen, 80, Longtime Voice of KVPR

Todd Chrisley (2nd L) speaks next to his wife Julie (L) and their kids Chase and Savannah at a panel for the USA television series "Chrisley Knows Best" during the Television Critics Association Cable Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, California July 14, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo
7 hours ago

Trump to Pardon Reality TV’s Todd and Julie Chrisley After Tax Evasion Conviction

8 hours ago

Westlands Leader Calls Slight Water Boost ‘Disappointing’

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 22, 2024. REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/File Photo
9 hours ago

Republican Tuberville Announces Bid for Alabama Governor

Residents walk by power grid towers at Bair Island State Marine Park in Redwood City, California, United States, January 26, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
9 hours ago

PG&E Sees Surge in AI Data Center Interest With Fresno Area Emerging as New Hotspot

Salesforce Tower in New York
10 hours ago

SF-Based Salesforce Is Buying Informatica in $8 Billion Deal

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend