When Minoru Yasui, Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu challenged the constitutionality of internment in court, the JACL did not initially support their efforts. The organization’s perceived compliance with the government during internment created controversy. Decades later, the JACL has introduced Resolution R-3 to address its controversial positions.
Resolution R-3 is a proposition that acknowledges the efforts of Tule Lake resisters (Yasui, Hirabayashi and Korematsu). According to Rafu, the children of Minori Yasui, Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu released a statement advocating this proposition.
The families recognize that, although they did not live through the period during World War II when their ancestors were incarcerated, it is important to apologize to those who suffered trauma and mistreatment during the time.
Nichi Bei reports that the Japanese American Citizens League apologized to draft resisters back in the year 2000. Today the JACL understands that those who answered “no” to questions 27 and 28 on the loyalty questionnaire, the “No-Nos”, were considered disloyal to America and sent to Tule Lake. Thus, it is crucial to honor their efforts and offer a sincere apology.
“There hasn’t been an accurate and fair, open and honest dialogue and opportunity to actually process through this issue and it’s been 76 years,” Michael Ishii, a former president of the New York chapter of the JACL told Nichi Bei.
Not all of JACL’s chapters are on board with the resolution. According to Nichi Bei, members of the Northern California-Western Nevada-Pacific District plan to vote against the resolution unless it is amended.
The children and families of the resisters, however, view the resolution as a meaningful public apology. They have thrown their full support behind Resolution R-3.
“…We fully support the proposed resolution for recognizing the importance of the Tule Lake resisters’ opposition to the government’s actions against Japanese Americans during World War II and for publicly apologizing for the wartime JACL’s condemnation of that resistance,” they said in a statement published on Rafu.
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