Japanese Peruvians Launch Campaign for WWII Redress

Activists fighting for redress for Peruvians of Japanese descent who were deported from Latin America and forced into U.S. prison camps during World War II announced Wednesday the launch of a campaign to put pressure on the government to make a formal apology and offer reparations.

The “Campaign for Justice” was announced by Robin Toma, a civil rights attorney representing three Japanese Peruvians in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court. The defendants include the attorney general and the administrator of the office of redress administration.

“We are asking the public to join us,” said Toma at a news conference at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. “We want people to write their congressional representatives and make calls to President Bill Clinton. And any contributions will help. . . . We can’t rely on the courts alone.”

The campaign effort is backed by the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations, Japanese American Citizens League and American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

These groups were active in a campaign that resulted in a 1988 congressional act offering apologies and reparations to tens of thousands of Japanese Americans confined by the government during World War II.

More than 2,000 Japanese Peruvians were arrested at their homes in Peru and deported to the United States, where they were taken to relocation camps, a violation of international law, Toma said. After the war ended, Peru refused to accept many of the Japanese Peruvians. In addition, the U.S. considered the Japanese Peruvians illegal immigrants, so many moved to Japan, a country totally unfamiliar to most of them, Toma said.

Many eventually returned to the United States. When they applied for reparations in 1988, they were told they were not eligible because they were “illegal aliens” while they were in the camps, despite the fact that they had been forced from their native countries to the United States, Toma said.

“It took a lot of courage for me to come here today,” said one plaintiff, Alicia Nishimoto, who at times had to pause to hold back tears. “I want people to learn the truth about what the U.S. government did to us. We didn’t commit any crime and Peru was not at war. . . . The U.S. government forced us here against our will. At least, we should receive a word of apology.”