How were Japanese Americans compensated for internment?

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Right after the war, no one was compensated. Those who had once owned land, (and it was only the children of the Japanese immigrants who could own property since their parents were denied access to American citizenship,) if families didn't sell their properties before the evacuation or during the war to pay taxes and storage fees, and if families were lucky enough to have good friends to watch over their property, squatters claimed right to their land and the law did little to protect the Japanese-Americans from these illegal gains. 

In 1953, those whose American citizenship had been revoked were reestablished. Also that year, all Asian immigrants were finally allowed American citizenship despite the many decades they had already been living in the U.S. In 1988, President Regan gave a public apology, but it wasn't until 1992 when President George Bush Sr. issued $20,000 checks to the survivors. Compensation came fifty years later, after everyone had reestablished their lives, but not every accepted the checks out of anger and silent protests; others gave it to family members and charities.



Answers.com (answered by K.P. Kollenborn, historian)

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