S.C.R. No. 157 Summary

• Hawaii Legislature apologizes to Japanese Americans for past support of unjust exclusion, removal, and incarceration during World War II and failure to defend their civil rights and liberties.

• Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, resulted in incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry in ten concentration camps across the western United States and Arkansas.

• Honouliuli Internment Camp in Hawaii held approximately 400 internees and 4,000 prisoners of war; over 2,000 Japanese Americans from Hawaii were interned total, yet none were ever found guilty of sabotage, espionage, or overt acts against the United States.

• The 1983 Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concluded EO9066 resulted from "racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" rather than military necessity, findings affirmed by the federal Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

• A certified copy of the resolution shall be transmitted to the Governor of Hawaii.