The US Apologises for Wartime Internment

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act which gave a presidential apology and compensation to Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Norman Mineta a former congressman who was instrumental in pushing through the landmark legislation and was himself incarcerated as a child.

Image: Japanese-American child waits with luggage to be transported to internment camps for the duration of WWII 01/07/1942 Copyright Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching
0:25.7	and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.7	Hello and thank you for downloading this edition of our Witness History Podcast with me for Hana Hither.
0:36.1	And today I'm taking you back to 1988 to the signing of the Civil Liberties Act, which
0:42.1	gave a presidential apology and compensation to Japanese
0:46.3	Americans interned during World War II. Americans we gather here today to write a grave wrong.
0:54.0	President Ronald Reagan, and that grave wrong saw 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in camps
1:02.0	following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy on
1:05.2	December 7th 1941. A date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
1:21.6	Yes, the nation was then at war, struggling for its survival, and it's not for us
1:26.4	today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle.
1:32.1	Yet we must recognize that the internal... mistakes while engaged in that great struggle.
1:33.0	Yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese Americans was just that, a mistake.
1:39.0	It took us close to 10 years to get the bill passed. It just needed a lot of TLC and a lot of attention to working on a nonpartisan basis
1:50.4	with Republicans and Democrats to get supporters.
1:54.0	Norman Minetta, a congressman from San Jose, California, was instrumental in pushing through the Civil Liberties Act.
	...

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