Compensation to Internees
- Share via
Rep. Norman D. Shumway’s article, (Op-Ed Page, Sept. 16), refers to the pending legislation to compensate Japanese Americans interned in World War II internment camps as a “bad bill.”
He writes that it will “spawn a new and deplorable wave of anti-Japanese bias, particularly among veteran’s groups who fought in the Pacific theater and American civilians here and abroad who suffered grievous losses. Those people are not being offered $20,000 for their privations.”
Does not the congressman realize that ours was a very unique situation where our own government incarcerated us behind barbed wires--notwithstanding the fact that a goodly majority of us were American citizens? He may be surprised to know that many Japanese-American GIs served in the Pacific theater also (I had brothers who did). And it is for “American civilians here . . . who suffered grievous losses”--especially our personal freedoms, that this legislation was approved in Congress.
ARTHUR M. TSUNEISHI
San Gabriel
More to Read
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox twice per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
