Supporting Question 4: Reparations for Japanese American Incarceration

Introduce the opening activity for this supporting question by offering some historical context for students. Explain that in 1988, more than 40 years after the incarceration camps closed, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided restitution for Japanese Americans who had been imprisoned during World War II. This restitution was given to Japanese American survivors in the form of a check for $20,000 (about $45,000 today) and an official apology from the US government. Hundreds of Japanese American community members shared their experiences with Congress, leading to the passage of the bill. Explain that the legislation was an example of a “reparations” program—a term that students will now explore in more detail. 

The concept of reparations is complex and thus difficult to define, but the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) identifies a few key components: Reparations seek to acknowledge violations that were committed against a group of people, to repair the damage done by these violations, and to identify the root causes of the violations to prevent them from occurring again in the future. ¹ Reparations are generally issued by the government or group that is responsible for the violations.

Use the Big Paper teaching strategy to help students engage with the concept of reparations. Write the definition of reparations on poster paper, along with the following questions:

• Have you heard of reparations before? If so, in what context? 
• What questions or thoughts do you have after reading this definition?
• What are the types of violations that could lead to reparations?
• How can reparations seek to achieve the three goals outlined in this definition?
• How are reparations different from other ways a country can respond to injustice?

Divide students into groups, and give each group a sheet of poster paper for their silent conversation.

• 1“Reparations,” International Center for Transitional Justice (accessed September 30, 2019).

Next, read aloud as a class Inside the Japanese American Campaign for Reparations. The reading contains the text of an NPR interview with John Tateishi, author of the book Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations. In the interview, Tateishi, who was imprisoned at Manzanar along with his family when he was only three years old, describes what motivated organizations like the JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) to pursue reparations for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. 

Before reading, provide students with definitions for the following terms: 

• Issei: word used by Japanese communities in North and South America to describe first-generation immigrants, or people who were born in Japan
• Nissei: word used by Japanese communities in North and South America to describe second-generation immigrants
• Sansei: word used by Japanese communities in North and South America to describe third-generation immigrants

As you read aloud, have students make the following annotations on the text: 

• Circle or underline key words; tell students why these seem important.
• Put a question mark by ideas you don’t understand or find puzzling.

• Summarize key historical events and ideas.
• Write phrases or sentences that express your reactions and interpretations.
• Note the author’s intentions and assumptions.

Next, break the class into groups of three students and have them discuss the article in small groups using the following questions: 

1. Why did organizations like the JACL seek reparations for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II? What were they trying to achieve?
2. What did they have to overcome to win support for reparations within the Japanese American community?
3. What parallels do survivors of Japanese American incarceration note between this history and today? 
4. How does Tateishi connect this history to principles of freedom and democracy? What new ideas do you have about these concepts based on reading this interview?

Regroup as a class and ask volunteers to share takeaways from their small-group discussion.

Open the class by asking students to review the silent conversations they had about reparations in the Big Paper activity on Day 1. Ask students to discuss how the material from the previous day may have influenced their perspective on reparations. Then share the following excerpt from the New York Times article America Has Tried Reparations Before. Here Is How It Went: 

On separate occasions 40 years apart, Congress awarded payments to Japanese-Americans who were taken from their homes during World War II and sent to internment camps.

The Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 offered compensation for real and personal property they had lost. About $37 million was paid to 26,000 claimants. But no provision was made for lost freedom or violated rights. 

That came in 1988, when Congress voted to extend an apology and pay $20,000 to each Japanese-American survivor of the internment.  More than $1.6 billion was paid to 82,219 eligible claimants.

The internment had been “carried out without adequate security reasons,” Congress declared, and was “motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” The act acknowledged that the physical and emotional damage the internees had suffered, including missed education and job training, could never be fully compensated.

The bill produced “a wonderful feeling” among Japanese-Americans, according to Representative Robert T. Matsui, a California Democrat who was interned with his parents as a child. “It lifted the specter of disloyalty that hung over us for 42 years because we were incarcerated. We were made whole again as American citizens.” ¹

• 1Adeel Hassan and Jack Healyons, “America Has Tried Reparations Before. Here Is How It Went. ” New York Times, July 19, 2019.

Prepare your students for a Four Corners activity. Explain that you will project a series of statements on the board. For each statement, they will need to move to the area of the classroom that signifies whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement. Once they’ve identified their feelings about the statement, they should discuss it with one to two people standing near them. If time permits, you can have volunteers share their answers with the whole class. 

Project the statements below on the board or on big paper. (Note: You may need to review the definition of reparations from Day 1 Activity 1 before leading this activity.) 

1. The reparations programs of 1948 and 1988 went far enough to acknowledge and offer compensation for the lasting harm caused by Japanese American incarceration.  
2. The reparations programs of 1948 and 1988 achieved the three goals outlined in the definition of reparations.
3. The United States has addressed the root causes of Japanese American incarceration in order to prevent it from happening again. 

Ask students to take their seats. Then, as a class, discuss the following question: 

How would you design a reparations program for Japanese American incarceration? What would you do the same as the example you read? What would you do differently? 

As students discuss, record their ideas on the board or a piece of chart paper. Explain to students that they can use these ideas to help them complete the formative task below.

Explain that in the next activity, students will be reading more about how Asian Americans in the United States, many of them survivors or descendants of survivors of Japanese incarceration, are thinking about the legacy of Japanese American incarceration and what it means for their pursuit of justice today. 

Divide the class into small groups of three to five students, and give each group one of the following readings: 

• How History Led Japanese Americans to Stand with Immigrants
• The Movement to Teach AAPI History in Public Schools
• For grandson of Camp Amache incarceree, historic designation 'creates permanence' (Rocky Mountain PBS)

In their small groups, students should read the article and then Create a Headline summarizing the article in response to the following question: How has the legacy of World War II Japanese American incarceration inspired activism among Japanese Americans today?

Ask a representative from each group to share their headlines with the class.

As the formative task for this supporting question, students will submit their headlines from Activity 3.