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The story of how nearly 100,000 Americans achieved reparations and an official apology for one of the most shameful episodes in US history.
"Redress gives us an insider's step-by-step view of how a bold and determined group of Japanese Americans achieved an unprecedented goal that, at the beginning, looked impossible. We have a lot to learn from their extraordinary success." —Adam Hochschild
For decades the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans remained hidden from the historical record, its shattering effects kept silent. But in the 1970s the Japanese American Citizens League headed a campaign for an official government apology and monetary compensation. Redress is John Tateishi's firsthand account of this against-all-odds campaign. Tateishi, who led the JACL Redress Committee for many years, admits the task was herculean. The campaign sought an unprecedented admission of wrongdoing from Congress. It depended on a unified effort but began with an acutely divided community; for many, the shame of "camp" was so deep that they could not even speak of it. And Tateishi knew that the campaign would succeed only if the public learned that there had been concentration camps on U.S. soil.
Redress is the story of a community reckoning with what it means to be both culturally Japanese and American citizens, and what it means to prevent terrible harms from happening again. This edition features a new preface about the lessons Tateishi's story might have for reparations efforts today.
"The lessons learned and the history made in this book are indispensable for all those who are seeking redress and reparations for their own communities today." —Karen Korematsu, founder and executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute
"John Tateishi, who was on the front lines of the Japanese American redress movement, has written a compelling blow-by-blow account of that struggle. This is a quintessentially American story of how, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, justice nevertheless prevails." —Jay Feldman, author of Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America
"Redress is a must-read for understanding the success of the redress campaign and how it changed the course of American history." —Norman Mineta, former U.S. secretary of transportation
"A fascinating insider's account of a historic campaign by a marginalized community and its allies to see redress from the most powerful country in the world. Simply compelling!" —Dale Minami, lead counsel in overturning Korematsu v. United States
John Tateishi, born in Los Angeles in 1939, was incarcerated from ages three to six at Manzanar, one of America's ten World War II concentration camps. He studied English Literature at UC Berkeley and attended UC Davis for graduate studies. He played important roles in leading the campaign for Japanese American redress, and as the director of the Japanese American Citizens League, he used the lessons of the campaign to ensure that the rights of this nation's Arab and Muslim communities were protected after 9/11.
Preface to the First Edition
1. BEGINNINGS (1970-1976)
- The Birth of the Movement
- My Journey to the JACL
- Gaman
- Defining the Issue
- The Testing Ground
- Questions 27 and 28
- The Message
- 1976 and the Sacramento Convention
- Mike Masaoka
- The Turning Point
- Clifford Uyeda
- The Candidate
- The Guidelines
- The Two-Part Plan
- The JACL's Redress President
- The Opening Salvo from Salt Lake City
- The Committee
- Ernest Weiner
- The Big Four
- The Most Critical Decision
- 'Like 1942 All Over Again'
- The Media Breakthrough
- Campaign Backlash
- The Redress Staff
- The Flag and Apple Pie
- The Grassroots Machine
- The Waiting Game
- Introduction of the Commission Bill
- The Opening Rounds
- Could a Nation Judge Itself?
- An American Testimonial
- My Colliding Worlds
- The First Congressional Hearings
- Our Days of Infamy
- Chaos
- Fulfilling the Promise
- The Next Phase
- Changing the Odds
- Ronald Reagan, the Unknown
- Formation
- A Gamble
- The Hearings Begin
- The Community Speaks
- Karl Bendetsen
- John McCloy
- Cambridge
- Commission Deliberations
- The CWRIC Report and Recommendations
- Hohri v. U.S.
- One Vote at a Time
- Coram Nobis
- Precedent Strategy
- Caught in a Double Vortex
- The Meanest Little Town in America
- Changes
- H.R. 442
- Moving On
- A Successful Conclusion
- Japanese Latin Americans
- How Do You Fix Something So Broken?
- Finding Our Way Back
- Another Day of Infamy
- Journey's End
Index
About the Author