Blog #3: Reparations on the Home Front

Injustice to different racial groups, have always existed in the United States. Some of the injustice has been committed by the United States government not just the people. But despite of the wrongful acts committed to such groups, the United States has made efforts to repair wrongful past doings. During WWII, Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans were forced to relocate to camps located in the central regions of the United States. Ten internment camps were established in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas, eventually holding 120,000 persons. Many were forced to sell their property at a severe loss before departure. This occurred, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The United States government did this because Japan was the enemy during that time of war. The relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II was a violation of civil liberties in American history. (http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html)

The legislation stated that government actions were based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. The United States did have a collective effort to repair their injustice. The group of people who suffered from this human rights violations received over $1.6 billion in reparations, which were later disbursed by the U.S. government to Japanese Americans who had either suffered internment or were heirs of those who had suffered internment. The harm done may have been devastating and irreversible, may be felt both individually and collectively, and may have long term consequences both for individual victims and for society as a whole. (Magarrell, 1)

There are not administrative programs enacted or any policies involved. The government did however enact the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This Act did provide benefits to those who were segregated. According, to Rubio-Martin, Paz Bailey and Guillerot, monetary compensation for families of victims of extrajudicial execution, death in a massacre or forced displacement, as well as compensation for survivors of torture, rape and sexual violence is a form of reparation to the victims of such crimes. In this particular case the monetary benefit was based on forced displacement of a specific racial group. It seems like monetary reparations apply nationally as well as international. For instance, the TFV employs two targeting strategies for any type of assistance, (1) projects tailored to meet the needs of victims of specific crimes and (2) large-scale projects to help communities rebuild themselves and establish long-term peace and reconciliation. (http://trustfundforvictims.org/homepage)

The effort that the United States did to repair from their wrongdoing was successful. Not all the victims benefited from this because there were not that many survivors, but it did however helped those who were victims of intermittent. This is no longer ongoing, but it did take a long time to give the money to those victims. Repairing their wrongdoing and apologizing for what the United States government did was a big effort and these victims did deserve it. The government knew that they committed wrongful acts, when they began to segregate Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals; this is why they did whatever possible to find a way to repair their wrongful doings.