Speech #920277465

The bill which I introduced is directed toward erasing one of the last vestiges of what has been called "the blackest page in American history." I am referring. of course. to the evacuation of 110.000 Americans of Japanese ancestry and their parents. who were uprooted from their homes along the west coast and Hawaii. deprived of most of their property. and imprisoned in what the Federal Government chose to call "relocation camps" or "internment centers." but which were in fact concentration camps. complete with barbed wire fences and armed guards. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hawaii. on December 7. 1941. a great many immigrants to America from Japan held yen certificates of deposit with Japanese banks having branches in the United States. The Yokohama Specie Bank was one of these. At the outbreak of World War II. the assets of Yokohama Specie Bank and other enemy firms were confiscated. or vested. under the authority of the Trading With the Enemy Act. so that those properties would not be used to aid the enemy during the period of hostilities. When Congress in 1946 enacted a comprehensive plan for allowing claims of legitimate creditors of the enemy alien firms and entities whose assets had been vested. payment was expressly barred to creditors who were interned or paroled as "enemy aliens." And how did these people earn the designation "enemy alien"? For the overwhelming majority. it was disarmingly simple. In the first place. all Japanese immigrants were aliens. not because none cared to become a citizen of his new country. but because Federal law forbade it. It was not until 1953 tlhat Japanese immigrants were permitted to become naturalized American citizens. Incidentally. once that bar was removed. thousands demonstrated their longfelt loyalty by becoming naturalized citizens of the United States. But. because Japanese immigrants were noncitizens. that was enough to classify them as "enemy" aliens. particularly along the west coast. and virtually every one of them was swept up in the internment and parole machinery. In the then Territory of Hawaii. the authorities were more discerning. since interning all those of Japanese ancestry would have tended to destroy Hawaiis economy. Nevertheless. nearly every Buddhist priest. nearly every teacher in a Japanese language school. and nearly *every official in a Japanese fraternal organization was automatically classed as dangerous. Once Congress permitted it. almost every one of the "enemy" aliens became naturalized American citizens. A great many had sent their sons to war for America. both in the Pacific and European theaters. In 1956.