[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 78 (Monday, April 22, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17667-17669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-9505]
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
28 CFR Part 74
[Order No. 2017-96]
Redress Provisions for Persons of Japanese Ancestry
AGENCY: Department of Justice.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Justice hereby proposes a change to the
regulations governing redress provisions for persons of Japanese
ancestry. This change will amend the standards of the Civil Liberties
Act of 1988 to make eligible for payments of $20,000 those persons who
were born after their parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated from the
prohibited military zones of the West Coast of the United States as a
result of military proclamations issued pursuant to Executive Order
9066. This change will also make eligible for redress those persons who
were born outside the prohibited military zones in the United States
after their parents were released from internment camps during the
defined war period and
[[Page 17668]]
whose parents had resided in the prohibited military zones on the West
Coast immediately prior to their internment. In practice, this
amendment will make potentially eligible those persons who were born
after their parents were evacuated, relocated, or interned by the
United States Government, and who could not legally return to their
parents' original place of residence within the prohibited military
zones on the West Coast.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before June 6, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Office of Redress
Administration, P.O. Box 66260, Washington, DC 20035-6260.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Tink D. Cooper or Emlei M. Kuboyama, Office of Redress Administration,
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, P.O. Box 66260,
Washington, DC 20035-6260; (202) 219-6900 (voice) or (202) 219-4710
(TDD). These are not toll-free numbers.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-383 (codified at
50 U.S.C. app. 1989 et. seq., as amended) (``the Act''), enacted into
law the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians established by Congress in 1980. See Commission
on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act, Pub. L. No. 96-
317 (1980). This bipartisan commission was established: (1) To review
the facts and circumstances surrounding Executive Order 9066, issued
February 19, 1942, and the impact of that Executive order on American
citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry; (2) to
review directives of United States military forces requiring the
relocation and, in some cases, detention in internment camps of these
American citizens and permanent resident aliens; and (3) to recommend
appropriate remedies. The Commission submitted to Congress in February
1983 a unanimous report, Personal Justice Denied, which extensively
reviewed the history and circumstances of the decisions to exclude,
remove, and then to detain Japanese-Americans and Japanese resident
aliens from the West Coast, as well as the treatment of Aleuts during
World War II. The final part of the Commission's report, Personal
Justice Denied Part 2: Recommendations, concluded that these events
were influenced by racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of
political leadership, and recommended remedial action to be taken by
Congress and the President.
On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil
Liberties Act of 1988 into law. The purposes of the Act were to
acknowledge and apologize for the fundamental injustice of the
evacuation, relocation, and internment of Japanese-Americans and
permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry, to make restitution,
and to fund a public education program to prevent the recurrence of any
similar event in the future.
Section 105 of the Act makes the Attorney General responsible for
identifying, locating, and authorizing payment of redress to eligible
individuals. 50 U.S.C. app. 1989b-4. The Attorney General delegated
these responsibilities and duties assigned to her to the Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights, who, in keeping with precedent, has
designated the Office of Redress Administration (``ORA'') in the Civil
Rights Division to carry out the responsibilities and duties mandated
by the Act.
The ORA is charged with identifying and locating persons eligible
under the Act. To date, restitution has been paid to a total of 79,832
Japanese-Americans and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry.
In the preamble of the final regulation, the Civil Rights Division
stated that ``while children born in assembly centers, relocations
[sic] camps and internment camps are included as eligible for
compensation, the regulations do not include as eligible children born
after their parents had voluntarily relocated from prohibited military
zones or from assembly centers, relocation camps, or internment
camps.'' 54 Fed. Reg. 34160 (1989). A number of these persons asserted
claims for redress based on their parents' evacuation or internment by
the United States Government prior to their birth and their subsequent
inability to legally return to their parents' original place of
residence in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast. However,
based on section 108 of the Act and 28 CFR 74.4, ORA found these
persons ineligible for redress. In all, approximately 900 persons who
were born after their parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated from the
prohibited military zones or after their parents were released from
internment camps claimed compensation under the Act. Most of these
claimants were born prior to midnight on January 2, 1945, the effective
date of Proclamation No. 21, which rescinded the prohibited military
zones on the West Coast and lifted the general exclusion restrictions
on persons of Japanese ancestry. ORA's denial of redress to these
claimants was upheld during the administrative appeal process set forth
in 28 CFR 74.17 and in some decisions of the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims. See Ishida v. United States, 31 Fed. Cl. 280 (1994); Tanihara
v. United States, 32 Fed. Cl. 805 (1995). However, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently determined that ORA's
policy of denying such claims was inconsistent with the terms of the
Act. Ishida v. United States, 59 F.3d 1224 (Fed. Cir. 1995); Consolo v.
U.S., No. 94-5150 (Fed. Cir., July 10, 1995) (unpubl.).
II. Revised Interpretation
In order to conform to these recent decisions, the Civil Rights
Division proposes to revise its interpretation regarding the
eligibility for redress of persons who either were born after their
parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated from the prohibited military zones on
the West Coast or who were born after a parent had been evacuated from
the prohibited military zones on the West Coast and interned.
Specifically, the regulation would reverse the Civil Rights Division's
current policy of denying redress to such persons who were prevented by
law from returning to a parent's original place of residence in the
prohibited military zones on the West Coast, and who are otherwise
eligible under these regulations.
The appellant in Ishida was born on November 23, 1942, in Ohio,
after his parents had voluntarily evacuated from California in March
1942. His claim of deprivation was based on his inability to return to
California during World War II. The Department's determination of
ineligibility was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
However, as mentioned above, on July 6, 1995, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit reversed, holding that persons such as Ishida,
who were excluded by law ``from the parents' original place of
residence or the family home'' in a prohibited military zone were
deprived of liberty as a result of the laws and orders specified in the
Act and were eligible to receive compensation under the Act. In the
companion case, Consolo, the court affirmed the trial court, holding
that for the reasons set forth in Ishida, the appellee, who was born in
Utah on April 11, 1943, after her parents had voluntarily evacuated
from California in March 1942, was also eligible to receive redress
under the Act.
The Civil Rights Division proposes that it be guided by certain
principles in applying the modified standard discussed above. First,
the Civil Rights
[[Page 17669]]
Division proposes to apply the standard not only to persons similarly
situated to the plaintiffs in Ishida and Consolo, who were born after
their parents ``voluntarily'' evacuated the prohibited military zones
on the West Coast pursuant to military proclamations, but also to
persons who were born after their parents had been evacuated from the
prohibited military zones on the West Coast and interned. These latter
persons, who were born outside of the prohibited military zones after
their parents were released from internment camps, also could not
return to their parents' original places of residence in the prohibited
military zones on the West Coast. Because, consistent with the Federal
Circuit's reasoning, persons in this category can also be deemed to
have been deprived of liberty, based solely on their Japanese ancestry,
as a result of certain Federal Government actions, the Civil Rights
Division proposes to make redress available to them. Accordingly,
redress will be made available to persons born outside of the
prohibited military zones after their parents were interned where at
least one parent's original place of residence immediately prior to his
or her internment was in the prohibited military zones of the West
Coast. However, this change will not affect those persons born outside
of the prohibited military zones after their parents were released from
internment camps during the defined war period where such parents had
resided outside of the prohibited military zones on the West Coast
immediately prior to their internment.
Second, the Civil Rights Division proposes to limit eligibility
under this policy to claimants born prior to January 3, 1945, the
effective date of Proclamation No. 21 (midnight on January 2, 1945).
Proclamation No. 21 lifted the general restrictions that had prevented
persons of Japanese ancestry from returning to their original places of
residence in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast.
Accordingly, persons born on or after January 3, 1945, could legally
return to their parents' original residence on the West Coast.
Historical evidence indicates that persons of Japanese ancestry
were, in fact, allowed to return to the West Coast without any
restrictions as early as December 17, 1944, the date on which
Proclamation No. 21 was issued and the War Department publicly
announced the lifting of the general exclusion orders. In addition, on
December 18, 1944, the Secretary of the Interior issued a press release
stating that the blanket exclusion orders for persons of Japanese
ancestry on the Pacific Coast were revoked. Moreover, War Relocation
Authority (``WRA'') records indicate that 26 people of Japanese
ancestry left WRA internment camps and returned to California between
December 17, 1944 and January 3, 1945. However, because the
proclamation might not have been fully implemented or fully publicized
at the time of its issuance, ORA will not use the earlier date of
issuance but will use the effective date of Proclamation No. 21.
Third, the West Coast is defined as those geographic areas in the
State of California, the western portions of Washington and Oregon, and
the southern portion of Arizona, where persons of Japanese ancestry
were initially required to reside and later barred from entering,
pursuant to several proclamations. Proclamation No. 4 prohibited
persons of Japanese ancestry from leaving parts of the West Coast while
the United States Government was preparing to forcibly evacuate them.
Subsequent proclamations were issued to exclude those of Japanese
ancestry from these defined West Coast areas. For example, persons of
Japanese ancestry were excluded from Military Area No. 1 pursuant to
Proclamation No. 7, dated June 8, 1942, and excluded from the
California portion of Military Area No. 2 pursuant to Proclamation No.
11, dated August 18, 1942.
III. Regulatory Impact Analysis
The Attorney General has determined that this proposed rule is not
a significant regulatory action under Executive Order No. 12866, and
accordingly this proposed rule has not been reviewed by the Office of
Management and Budget.
List of Subjects in 28 CFR Part 74
Administrative practice and procedure, Aliens, Archives and
records, Citizenship and naturalization, Civil rights, Indemnity
payments, Minority groups, Nationality, War claims.
For the reasons set forth in the preamble and by the authority
vested in me, including 28 U.S.C. 509 and 510, chapter I of title 28 of
the Code of Federal Regulations is proposed to be amended by revising
part 74 to read as follows:
PART 74--CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT REDRESS PROVISION
1. The authority citation for Part 74 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 50 U.S.C. app. 1989b.
2. In Subpart B, section 74.3 is amended by adding paragraph (b)(9)
to read as follows:
Subpart B--Standards of Eligibility
Sec. 74.3 Eligibility determinations.
(a) * * *
(b) * * *
(9) Individuals born after a parent had been evacuated, relocated,
or interned pursuant to paragraph (a)(4) of this section, and whose
parent's or parents' original place of residence was in the prohibited
military zones on the West Coast on or after March 2, 1942, and who
could not legally return to their parent's or parents' original place
of residence in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast prior
to January 3, 1945. This also includes those individuals who were born
after a parent had ``voluntarily'' evacuated pursuant to paragraph
(b)(3), and whose parent's or parents' original place of residence was
in the prohibited military zones on the West Coast immediately prior to
their evacuation, and who could not legally return to their parent's or
parents' original place of residence in the prohibited military zones
on the West Coast prior to January 3, 1945.
* * * * *
Dated: April 9, 1996.
Janet Reno,
Attorney General.
[FR Doc. 96-9505 Filed 4-19-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-10-M
