Justice for the Forgotten Internees

From the Strange Bedfellows Department

Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, and Dan Lungren, a Republican, both U.S. representatives from California, wrote a piece in the Washington Post today (here) about an oft-forgotten facet of the Japanese internment during World War II. An estimated 2,300 people of Japanese descent from 13 Latin American countries were taken from their homes and forcibly transported to an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas during World War II. The U.S. government orchestrated and financed the deportation of Japanese Latin Americans for use in prisoner-of-war exchanges with Japan. Eight hundred people were sent across the Pacific, while the remaining Japanese Latin Americans were held in camps without due process until after the war ended. Becerra and Lungren write that “further study of the events surrounding the deportation and incarceration of Japanese Latin Americans is merited and necessary. While most Americans are aware of the internment of Japanese Americans, few know about U.S. government activities in other countries that were fueled by prejudice against people of Japanese ancestry.”

Law professor Natsu Taylor Saito wrote an imprtant article on the internment of Japanese Peruvians at 40 Boston College Law Review 275 (1998). 

Postscript  The Jurist ran an article on Becerra and Lungren’s commentary at here.  Thanks to Dan Kowalski for the tip!

KJ