As members of the coram nobis legal teams that represented Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minoru Yasui in their successful challenges to their convictions for defying the wartime Internment of Japanese Americans, we urge you to strongly support the current effort to secure redress from Congress for the Japanese Latin Americans the U.S. government had kidnapped and imprisoned during World War II.

Twenty years ago, through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, this legal community was part of a broad coalition that helped secure redress from Congress for Japanese Americans forcibly taken from their homes and communities during WWII, and imprisoned in desolate "internment" camps scattered throughout the Western U.S. and Arkansas.

This victory was exhilarating, but it wasn't enough. The same legislation that had found the Internment the product of race hatred, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership, nonetheless did not offer redress to other victims of U.S. wartime policies, the thousands of Japanese Latin Americans our nation had kidnapped from countries throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America and interned in U.S. prison camps to be used as barter for American prisoner exchanges.

Our government held these innocent people indefinitely without charge, seized their property and identity, forced them into hard labor, and cruelly deported many of them as "enemy aliens" after the war. Redress and justice to the surviving JLAs for this flagrant violation of civil and human rights is long overdue.

Today, the Japanese Latin American redress effort, spearheaded by the Campaign for Justice coalition, is at a critical juncture. Companion bills to initiate this redress effort by establishing a Congressional study commission have been re-introduced in the House and Senate: H.R. 662 (Becerra, D-CA) and S. 381 (Inouye, D-HI). The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed the bill last year. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties has set hearings on the bill this coming July.

To prepare for these hearings, the Campaign for Justice needs your financial support. The Campaign for Justice needs to raise at least $20,000 for grassroots organizing and important legislative and educational outreach, as well as to assist former JLA internees to travel to Washington D.C. to testify at the subcommittee hearings to make the public historical record necessary to support the redress legislation.

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In the 1980s, Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Min Yasui were able to vacate their wartime convictions and expose the truth about the entrenched official racism and gross abuse of power that led to the Internment only with the moral support and determination of our communities.

Although we donated our legal services pro bono, we were able to pursue the coram nobis cases only because our communities made generous financial donations to pay for the costs of litigation and public education. We achieved this victory together, and not only for Japanese Americans, but for all who care about securing justice and holding the government accountable for its wrongs.

Today, this fight for justice continues for the over 2,200 people of Japanese ancestry our government had kidnapped from their homes in Latin America. Please support the redress efforts for Japanese Latin Americans by making a donation to the Campaign for Justice today. Time is of the essence as the more elderly internees are quickly passing away.

Take other steps also if you can. For example: send a letter to your Congressional representatives supporting the bills, tell others about these important bills, get your organization to endorse these bills. It will take all of our support to make justice a reality for the Japanese Latin American internees. Click here to take action.

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Sincerely,

Dale Minami: Lead Counsel, Korematsu v. United States
Rod Kawakami: Lead Counsel, Hirabayashi v. United States
Peggy Nagae, Lead Counsel, Yasui v. United States

Donate online or mail your contribution to:

Campaign For Justice
P.O. Box 1384
El Cerrito, CA 94530

For further information contact Campaign for Justice at:
info@campaignforjusticejla.org or www.campaignforjusticejla.org

ENDORSEMENTS

Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area
(Celia W. Lee, President)

Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles County (Raymond Sakai, President)

Japanese American Bar Association of Greater Los Angeles (Dennis Yokoyama, President)

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (Helen Kim, President)

Teri Pham, President, Asian Pacific Bar of California