CA SR72

The California Senate apologizes for its past support of the unjust exclusion, removal, and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, authorized by Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, which resulted in the incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry.

The resolution acknowledges California's historical role in discriminating against Japanese Americans, including passage of the 1913 Alien Land Law prohibiting property ownership by Japanese immigrants, a $200,000 grant in 1945 to prosecute land law cases against incarcerated Japanese Americans, and approval of Senate Concurrent Resolution 15 (1942) questioning their loyalty.

The State Personnel Board wrongfully terminated Japanese American state employees, including Mitsuye Endo from the Department of Motor Vehicles, based on questioned loyalty; the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ordered Endo's release in December 1944 after the government conceded her loyalty.

Federal officials withheld information demonstrating the loyalty of Japanese Americans from the U.S. Supreme Court during cases involving Fred Korematsu, Min Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi, leading to reversals of their convictions in 1983 and a 2011 acknowledgment by the Acting Solicitor General that the conduct was "dishonorable."

The resolution references the 1983 findings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians and the 1988 federal Civil Liberties Act, which determined that Executive Order 9066 resulted from "racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" rather than military necessity.