“review the facts and circumstances surrounding Executive Order 9066, issued in February 19, 1942, and the impact of such Executive Order on American citizens and permanent residents... and to recommend appropriate remedies.” The CWRIC issued a report of its findings in 1983 with the reports “Personal Justice Denied” and “Personal Justice Denied-Part II, Recommendations.” The reports were based on information gathered “through 20 days of hearings in cities across the country, particularly the West Coast, hearing testimony from more than 750 witnesses: evacuees, former government officials, public figures, interested citizens, and historians and other professionals who have studied the subjects of Commission inquiry.”

Justice Denied-Part II, Recommendations.” The CWRIC concluded as follows: “In sum, Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions that followed from it-exclusion, detention, the ending of detention and the ending of exclusion-were not founded upon military considerations. The broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance about Americans of Japanese descent contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave personal injustice was done to the American citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II.”

“The Congress recognizes that, as described in the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, a grave injustice was done to both citizens and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry by the evacuation, relocation, and internment of civilians during World War II. As the Commission documents, these actions were carried out without adequate security reasons and without any acts of espionage or sabotage documented by the Commission, and were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. The excluded individuals of Japanese ancestry suffered

enormous damages, both material and intangible, and there were incalculable losses in education and job training, all of which resulted in significant human suffering for which appropriate compensation has not been

made. For these fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights of these individuals of Japanese ancestry, the Congress apologizes on behalf of the Nation.”

after the issuance of Executive Order 9066 highlight the ongoing need for public educational activities and the development of educational materials to ensure that the exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans will not only be remembered, but also properly understood, so that no group or community is ever again unjustly targeted as Japanese Americans were during World War II.