Important Dates
Historically, relations between Japan and the United States have influenced the manner in which the Japanese in the U.S. were treated. This chronology, therefore, includes events that mark that relationship.
I. The Early Period
1790
1841
1844
1851
June 27: Best known of the early Japanese arrivals to the Kingdom of Hawaii, Manjiro Nakahama eventually emigrates to the U.S. and is educated in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Renamed John Mung, he later returned to Japan, where he served as an interpreter for Commodore Matthew Perry when the latter entered Tokyo Bay in 1853.
U.S. and China signed a treaty to open the port of Shanghai to American ships. The treaty, coupled with the acquisition of California from Mexico (1848) and the need for coal stations, sparked U.S. interest in establishing relations with Japan.
Shipwrecked Japanese are taken to San Francisco, among them Hikozo Hamada, the young son of a wealthy landowner. Baptized Joseph Heco, he became the first Japanese to gain U.S. citizenship through naturalization in 1858.
Image Right: Portrait of Joseph Heco (1837-1897)
1854
On orders from President Millard Fillmore, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Edo (Tokyo) Bay for the second time to persuade Japan to open their doors to trade after 200 years of isolation. Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, opening a few ports to Americans. Other treaties with European nations follow.
Image Right: Woodblock Print Depicting Commodore Perry and other Navy Officials, c. 1854
1858
1860
1861
1869
The Treaty of Ansei was signed. It opened new ports in Japan and set a pattern of U.S.-Japan relations for the next fifty years.
First official Japanese delegation visits the U.S. Manjiro Nakahama serves as official interpreter.
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which bars further Chinese immigration and prohibits Chinese from citizenship. Enforced from 1882 to 1892, it created a labor shortage and is seen as a major reason for increased Japanese immigration to the Pacific Coast.
Image Right: A political cartoon from 1882, showing a Chinese man being barred entry to the "Golden Gate of Liberty". The caption reads, "We must draw the line somewhere, you know."
Thomas Lake Harris (see 1861) sold his interest in the commune in Santa Rosa and left California. Kanaye Nagasawa assumes leadership and develops the Fountaingrove estate into a highly successful commercial venture. He became the first Japanese wine grower in California. Fountaingrove became a popular center for many Sonoma County social events, visited by foreign dignitaries and other notables.
While visiting England, Kanaye Nagasawa, son of a wealthy family in Japan, meets Thomas Lake Harris, minister of a utopian group in the U.S. He accompanies Harris to the U.S. They move to Santa Rosa in the 1800s where Harris buys a 2000-acre parcel and names it “Fountaingrove.” (See year 1892.)
First group of Japanese immigrants arrive in U.S. and establish the Wakamatsu Colony at Gold Hill in California.
1870
1872
1880
1882
1892
1892
1893
1898
March 26: The U.S. Congress decrees that “any alien, being a free white person who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for a term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof.” The phrase “free white person” remained intact until 1873 when “persons of African nativity or descent” was added. This act would be used to deny citizenship to Japanese and many other Asian immigrants until the 1952 Walter-McCarran Act.
Twelve Japanese admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy by a special act of Congress. Fifty-six Japanese counted in the mainland U.S. There are now 63,000 Chinese immigrants in the U.S., the majority, wage-earning workers.
Kentaro Kaneko, a student from Japan, was admitted to Harvard and studied law under Oliver Wendell Holmes. Future President, Theodore Roosevelt was his classmate.
U.S. Census reports 148 Japanese in the U.S.
The enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act created a labor shortage and was seen as a major reason for the increased immigration of Japanese to the Pacific Coast.
A regulation passed by the San Francisco Board of Education provides for segregation of all Japanese children to a Chinese school. When the Japanese government protests, the regulation is withdrawn.
Hawai’i is annexed by the U.S. enabling approximately 60,000 Japanese residing in Hawai’i to proceed to mainland U.S. without passports. Photo Below: U.S. Marines occupying the Arlington Hotel grounds during the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
II. Immigration and Anti-Japanese Activities
The vast majority of Japanese emigrated to the U.S. between 1900 and 1920.
1900
1902
1903
1904
1905
Under pressure from the U.S., the Japanese government stopped issuing passports to laborers desiring entry to the U.S. Since the territory of Hawaii is not mentioned in the agreement, Japanese immigrants continued to emigrate there.
White miners expelled Japanese miners employed at the Yukon Mining Company in Atkin, Alaska.
Seito Saibara, a former member of the Japanese Diet, settled near Houston, Texas to begin a rice growing industry.
San Francisco: The National Convention of the American Federation of Labor resolves to exclude Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans from membership. Japan declares war on Russia. Russia is badly defeated and American sentiment that is initially with Japan, soon turns antagonistic.
• Japan and Russia signed the Portsmouth Treaty, with the U.S. as mediator. Provisions of the treaty caused outbursts of anti-government and anti-American feelings in Japan. Renewed anti-Japanese feelings swell in the U.S.
• The San Francisco Chronicle ran an anti-Japanese series for a year and a half. California legislature urges U.S. Congress to limit Japanese immigration.
• Sixty-seven organizations met in San Francisco to form the Asiatic Exclusion League of San Francisco.
1906
1907
1908
San Francisco School Board orders segregation of 93 Japanese American students.
• On orders from President Theodore Roosevelt, the San Francisco School Board rescinded the segregation order, but strong feelings against Japanese immigrants persisted. Anti-Japanese riots broke out in San Francisco in May, and again in October, much to the embarrassment of the U.S. government. President Roosevelt’s intervention became known as the Gentleman’s Agreement.
Photo Right: Political Cartoon from Harper’s Weekly from November 1906.
• Congress passed an immigration bill forbidding Japanese laborers from entering the U.S. via Hawaii, Mexico, or Canada.
U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Foreign Minister Hayashi of Japan formalize the Gentlemen’s Agreement whereby Japan agrees not to issue visas to laborers wanting to emigrate to the U.S.
1909
1910
1913
1915
1917
1918
1920
1924
Anti-Japanese riots occur in Berkeley. U.S. leaders are alarmed at the tone and intensity of anti-Japanese legislation introduced in California legislature.
Twenty-seven anti-Japanese proposals are introduced in the California legislature. The White House urges Governor Hiram Johnson to seek moderation.
The Alien Land Law (Webb-Haney Act) is passed which denies “all aliens ineligible for citizenship” (includes all Asians except Filipinos, who are “subjects” of U.S.) the right to own land in California. Leasing of land is limited to three years. Similar laws are eventually adopted in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Minnesota.
The Hearst newspapers, historically hostile to Japanese, intensifies its “Yellow Peril” campaign with sensational headlines and editorials that fuel anti-Japanese feelings.
As the U.S. enters World War I, 11,000 Issei and Nisei volunteer for military service in Hawai’i. 838 were selected and put into a segreagted unit, Company D, of the Hawaiian National Guard. However, they were never sent overseas. An unkown number of Issei and Nisei also volunteered from the contiguous states, and served with U.S. expeditionary forces in France.
Photo Right: Company D or “Japanese Company” of the Hawaiian National Guard in 1917. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
California’s Alien Land Law amended to close all loopholes. Forbids Issei from buying land in the names of their Nisei children (see date 1913).
Under pressure from the U.S., Japan stops issuing passports to so-called picture brides who had been emigrating to the U.S. since about 1910 to join husbands they married by proxy. This becomes effective in 1921.
Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), barring all immigration from Japan as well as all other Asian countries. Protests were held throughout Japan. July 1 was declared “Day of Humiliation.”
Photo Right: President Calvin Coolidge signing the Immigration Act of 1924 into law, June 5, 1924.
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) organized with headquarters set in San Francisco.
Photo Right: The JACL Logo
The Cable Act is repealed
• Japan invades China and captures Nanking, capital of Nationalist China.
• U.S. breaks off commercial relations with Japan.
• Britain and France declare war on Germany, signaling the beginning of World War II.
1929
1936
1937
III. World War II and Imprisonment of Japanese Immigrants and Citizens
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
President Roosevelt places embargo on most essential raw materials to Japan.
September 1: Nazi Germany invades Poland, officially starting World War II.
In July, Japan seizes bases in South Indochina in collaboration with the Vichy government.
• In July, the U.S. Government imposes an oil embargo on Japan (as do Great Britain and the Netherlands), followed by a freezing of Japanese assets in the U.S.
• October 16: The civilian government under Prince Konoye fell in Japan, being replaced by a military cabinet led by General Hideki Tojo.
• November 7: A report prepared by presidential investigator Curtis Munson is submitted to the President, State Department, and Secretary of War certifying that Japanese Americans possess an extraordinary degree of loyalty to U.S. It corroborates years of surveillance and intelligence by the FBI and Naval Intelligence.
• December 7: Japan attacks the U.S. fleet and military bases at Pearl Harbor.
• December 8: U.S. Congress declares war on Japan. Within hours, the FBI arrests 736 Japanese resident aliens as “security risks” in Hawaii and contiguous U.S.
• December 11: The U.S. declares war on Germany and Italy. The Western Defense Command is established with Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt as commander. The West Coast is declared a theater of war. Over 2000 Issei in Hawaii and mainland—teachers, priests, officers of organizations, newspaper editors and other prominent people in Japanese communities—imprisoned by the U.S. government.
December 15: After a brief visit to Hawaii, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox tells the press, “I think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the possible exception of Norway.” He made these statements without evidence of such sabotage.
Confusion and rumors of subversion abound. U.S. and Allied Forces suffer catastrophic defeats for four months, heightening fears of the threat of a West Coast invasion.
• January 5: The War Department classifies all Japanese American men of draft age as 4-C, “enemy aliens.” Status will not change until June 16, 1946.
• January 26: The Ringle Report and Naval Intelligence secret reports argue against mass incarceration. Urges encouragement of Japanese American loyalty.
• February 19: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, giving Secretary of War authority to designate “military areas” from which civilians could be excluded. This sets into motion eventual incarceration of 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry.
• February 21: The Tolan Committee begins hearings in San Francisco on the question of Japanese Americans, even as the decision to incarcerate them has already been made. California Attorney General Earl Warren testifies that the very absence of fifth column activities by Japanese is “confirmation that such actions were planned for the future.”
• February 25: The Navy informs Japanese American residents of Terminal Island near Los Angeles Harbor that they must leave in 48 hours.
• March 2: Public Proclamation #1 issued by Lt. General John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, specifies military zones 1 and 2, areas from which civilians could be removed. Zone 1 includes the western halves of California, Washington and Oregon and southern third of Arizona.
• March 24: Gen. DeWitt issues first of a series of exclusion orders which would force complete removal of the entire Japanese population from Military Zone 1.
• March 27: DeWitt orders curfew of all persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. Curfew for persons of German and Italian ancestries restricted to aliens only.
• March 28: Attorney Minoru Yasui defies curfew placed against Japanese Americans to test its constitutionality.
• April 2: California fires all Japanese Americans in state civil service employment.
• May 5: University student Gordon Hirabayashi (Seattle) refuses to follow curfew and exclusion orders to test constitutionality of military orders.
• May: Fred Korematsu arrested in Oakland, California for violating orders to report for “detention.”
• June 4-7: Battle of Midway inflicts severe harm to Japanese navy, a major turning point in the war in Pacific.
• June 5: Incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry from designated military zones is completed.
• October 30: U.S. Army completes transfer of Japanese Americans from detention centers to ten permanent War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps.
• January 28: War Department announces plans to organize an all-Japanese American combat unit.
• February 5: The Wyoming State Legislature passes law denying American citizens at Heart Mountain camp right to vote. Similar laws are passed by other states where camps are located.
• February 8: The “Loyalty Questionnaire” is administered in all ten camps to men and women over the age of seventeen. Contradictory and confusing nature of questions causes conflicts in families.
• April: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team is activated.
• April 13: Gen. John DeWitt testifies before the House Naval Affairs Subcommittee, “A Jap’s a Jap. There is no way to determine their loyalty. This coast is too vulnerable. No Jap should come back to this coast except on a permit from my office.”
• April 20: 9,507 Hawaiian Japanese volunteer for a special combat unit.
• June 21: The U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Hirabayashi and Yasui cases, upholding the constitutionality of the curfew and exclusion orders.
• July 15: Tule Lake, a California camp, is designated as segregation center for those whose response to “loyalty oath” proves unacceptable to authorities.
• January 20: Reinstatement of draft for Japanese Americans.
• January 26: As a result of the restoration of the military draft on January 14, approximately 300 people attend a public meeting at Heart Mountain where the Fair Play Committee is formally organized.
• March 1: Four hundred Nisei at Heart Mountain camp vote to resist draft until constitutional rights are restored.
• June 26: Sixty-three men from Heart Mountain convicted for refusing induction. They are sentenced to three years in prison. (267 from all ten camps eventually convicted for draft resistance.)
• Jerome is the first camp to close when the last inmates are transferred to Rohwer.
• October 30: The 100th/442nd combat teams rescues the Texas 141st Regiment “Lost Battalion” after five days of intense fighting. They suffer 800 casualties, including 184 killed in action, to rescue 211 Texans.
• December 17: U.S. War Department announces revocation of the West Coast exclusion order against Japanese Americans (effective on January 2, 1945, in anticipation of possible negative ruling of Supreme Court the following day).
• December 18: Supreme Court rules detention orders are valid use of “war powers” in the Korematsu case. In Endo case, it declares WRA cannot detain loyal citizens against will, opening way for Japanese Americans to return to West Coast.
• March 9: Sixteen square miles of Tokyo destroyed in fire-bombings.
• April 29: Members of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, a sub-unit of the 442nd rescue survivors of the Dachau Death March, part of the Dachau concentration camp.
• May 7: Nazi Germany surrenders to end war in Europe.
• August 6: U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Total of three million Japanese left homeless. Three days later, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
• August 14: The Pacific war ends.
• September 2: The Empire of Japan formally surrenders.
• September 4: Western Defense Command issues Public Proclamation No. 24, revoking all West Coast exclusion orders against persons of Japanese ancestry.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivering his “Day of Infamy” speech to Congress, asking that they declate war on Japan. December 8, 1941.
Sand Island Detention Center, Hawai’i, was one of the hastily built camps to house Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. c. 1942
A family being removed from Terminal Island, near San Pedro, south of Los Angeles. Terminal Island became one of the first communities to be “evacuated”.
Japanese Americans lining up to register with the WRA prior to the final “evacuation”. Some were given weeks notice and others only 48 hours notice of “removal”.
Many incarcerees were first sent to temporary detention centers at fairgrounds and horse tracks. The famed Santa Anita racetrack in Los Angeles became one of these temporary detention centers
“Japanese Relocation” was a short film produced by the Office of War and released in 1943 to the general public to explain the incarceration process. Courtesy of the Oregonian.
Guards at the Tule Lake jail, known as the “jail within a jail” after the camp became a segrgation center following the infamous “Loyalty Questionnaire”
The first day of the trial for the 63 Draft Resisters from Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee. Courtesy of Frank Abe
A member of the 522nd with a survivor of the Dachau Death March they rescued.
Japan formally surrendering on September 2, 1945 aboard the U.S.S. Missouri
IV. Post-War
1946
1947
1948
1952
1954
1956
1959
1962
1965
Japanese Americans returning to the West Coast often meet with hostility and acute housing shortages. Begin manual labor as crop pickers, cannery workers, and gardeners.
• January 9: Pfc. Sadao Munemori who was killed in action in Italy on April 5, 1945, is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is the first such award given to a Japanese American.
• March 20: Tule Lake, the last of ten major American concentration camps, closes.
• July 15: President Truman receives the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team on the White House lawn. “You fought not only the enemy but you fought prejudice and you have won,” remarks Truman.
Photo Credit: President Truman awarding a 7th Unit Citation to the 100th/442nd RCT on the White House lawn.
December 12: President Truman grants pardon to all 315 Japanese American draft resisters.
• January 19: U.S. Supreme Court invalidates California alien land law, which denies gifts of land by immigrant Japanese to citizen children.
• May 3: U.S. Supreme Court rules racially restrictive housing covenants unenforceable.
• July 2: President Truman signs “Evacuation Claims Act” which would pay less than ten cents on dollar for lost property. Many former detainees are unable to produce required documentary proof of losses.
• April 17: California Supreme Court declares racially restrictive alien land laws unenforceable.
• June 27: Walter-McCarran Immigration and Nationality Act passes in Congress over President Truman’s veto. Truman considers Act too restrictive in its quota system which heavily favors northern European nations. However, Act allows Japanese and other Asian immigrants to become naturalized citizens for the first time.
South Americans of Japanese ancestry held as hostages in U.S. concentration camps are allowed to apply for permanent residence status in the United States. Peru had refused them re-entry.
California voters repeal alien land laws by 2 to 1 margin.
August 29: Hawaii becomes fiftieth state. Daniel K. Inouye, a veteran of the 100th/442nd, is the first Japanese American elected to the House of Representatives.
Daniel Inouye became the first Japanese American elected to the United States Senate.
Photo Right: Daniel Inouye pictured with President John F. Kennedy
• October 3: Immigration Law of 1965 eliminates “national origin” quota system. Equal quota (20,000 per nation) finally granted to Asian nations.
• June: Anti-miscegenation (interracial marriage) laws ruled unconstitutional by U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia case.
V. Campaign for Redress
1970
1971
1974
1976
1978
1981
1983
1984
1984
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1992
1996
1998
1999
2000
At its convention in Chicago, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) unanimously adopts a resolution calling for reparations for the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The proposal championed by Edison Uno, Nisei civil rights activist, proposes individual compensation on a per diem basis.
Emergency Detention Act (Title II of Walter-McCarran Immigration and Nationality Act) repealed by President Nixon, thereby nullifying the power of mass preventive detention.
• Norman Mineta, former mayor of San Jose, was elected as the first mainland Japanese American to the U.S. House of Representatives.
• The first legislative plan for redress proposing individual payments to all persons who were incarcerated is initiated by the Seattle Evacuation Redress Committee under the aegis of the Seattle JACL Chapter. Aleuts and Latin American Japanese are included in the Seattle plan.
Photo Right: Norman Yoshio Mineta former mayor, congressman, and Secretary of Transportation
President Gerald Ford signs proclamation entitled “An American Promise” rescinding Executive Order 9066.
• July: At its convention in Salt Lake City, the JACL passes a resolution to seek $25,000 for each individual incarerated during World War II. JACL National Redress Committee formed to launch national redress campaign.
• Robert Matsui is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Sacramento.
• November 25: First Day of Remembrance held before a crowd of over 2,000 at Puyallup fairgrounds, site of former “Camp Harmony” detention center in Washington State.
CWRIC holds hearings in nine major cities across the nation recording testimonies from over 750 witnesses.
• Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi individually file a writ of error coram nobis to reopen their World War II cases.
• March 16: NCJAR files class action lawsuit seeking $200,000 in damages for ex-detainees.
• June 16: CWRIC issues its report, “Personal Justice Denied,” concluding that the exclusion, expulsion and incarceration of Japanese Americans was not justified by “military necessity”; and that the decision was based on “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.” Recommends that Congress recognize the “grave injustice” through an apology and by com-pensating each surviving internee in the amount of $20,000.
• October 4: Federal court in San Francisco vacates Fred Korematsu’s original conviction and rules that the government was not justified in issuing exclusion orders.
• October 6: Congressmen Jim Wright and Norman Mineta introduce H.R. 4110 calling for imple-mentation of the CWRIC’s findings and recommendations.
• National JACL establishes Legislative Education Committee (JACL/LEC), as its lobbying arm with the sole purpose of obtaining redress legislation.
California State Legislature proclaims February 19, 1984 and February 19 of each year to be recognized as “A Day of Remembrance” of the concentration camp episode to encourage Californians to reflect upon their shared responsibility to uphold the Constitution and the rights of all individuals at all times.
• Colonel Ellison S. Onizuka becomes the first Asian American in space. A year later he perished in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
• October: Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon invalidates Minoru Yasui’s conviction for violating a curfew order during World War II.
Photo Right: Colonel Ellison Shoji Onizuka, 1946-1986
Federal District Court in Seattle, Washington invalidates Gordon Hirabayashi’s 1942 conviction for violating wartime incarceration orders.
• September 17: “A More Perfect Union” exhibit opens at Smithsonian Institution that commemorates the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution by featuring incarceration of Japanese Americans and contributions of 100th/442nd combat units and MIS, (Military Intelligence Service detachment) during World War II.
• September 17: The House of Representatives passes Civil Liberties Act to provide redress payments and an apology to Japanese Americans.
• April 20: The Senate overwhelmingly passes the Civil Liberties Act.
• August 10: President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 requiring payment of$20,000 and an apology to an estimated 60,000 survivors of incarceration.
• August 10: California State legislature adopts ACR 37, introduced by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, which urges the adoption of history/social science textbooks that accurately portray wartime incarceration.
• November 21: President George Bush signs appropriation bill, containing redress payment provision under entitlement program.
• June 26: San Francisco School Board unanimously adopts “Day of Remembrance” resolution introduced by board member Leland Yee.
• October 9: First letters of apology signed by President George Bush presented to oldest survivors of Executive Order 9066 at the Department of Justice ceremony along with redress payment of $20,000.
February 21: Kristi Yamaguchi becomes the first Japanese American to win an Olympic Gold Medal in figure skating for the United States.
President Clinton appoints commissioners to the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund (CLPEF).
June 12: Japanese Latin Americans are offended by the Office of Redress Administration (ORA) offer of $5,000 and an apology. They decided to pursue their case in the U.S. Court of Claims for $20,000.
The 100th, 442nd, and MIS Memorial is dedicated in Los Angeles.
• July 25: Norman Mineta is confirmed as the Secretary of Commerce. He is the first Asian American to be appointed by a President to a cabinet post.
• April 21: General Eric Shinseki is the first Japanese American to be nominated to serve as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff.
• October 22: Twenty Japanese Americans who served during World War II have their Distinguished Service Medals upgraded to Congressional Medals of Honor.
• November 7: Mike Honda is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California.
• November 9: The Japanese American Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. to honor and memorialize the patriotic contributions of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Video Below: Medal of Honor Ceremony for Nisei and other Asian American veterans presented by President Bill Clinton. Courtesy of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library
VI. A Different World
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2009
• January 24: Norman Mineta is confirmed by the Senate as the Secretary of Transportation becoming a member of President George W. Bush’s cabinet.
• May: The Census Bureau reports 796,700 Japanese in the United States, a decline of approximately 7 percent from 1990.
• September 11: Following the 9/11 attacks, the JACL and other Japanese American community leaders voiced their support for the Arab and Muslim American communities fearing similar recourse to what happened after Pearl Harbor. As Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta is instrumental in
• November: Daniel Tani becomes the second Japanese American in space aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. At its convention in Chicago, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) unanimously adopted a resolution calling for reparations for the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The proposal championed by Edison Uno, Nisei civil rights activist, proposes individual compensation on a per diem basis.
• The state of Washington bans the use of the term “oriental” in describing persons of Asian ancestry in all official legal documents of state and local governments.
• The state of Kansas approved a bill repealing a 1933 law barring Asians from inheriting property. Originally, the law passed in 1925 preventing Asians from owning property in the state.
• February: Apolo Anton Ohno, a Japanese American, wins a gold medal in men’s speed skating in 1500 meters at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
• Governor Gray Davis of California signed legislation authorizing high school districts to retroactively grant a high school diploma to a person of Japanese ancestry who was incarcerated during World War II. Although many were able to complete some form of high school education in the camps, they were not able to return to their own high school to graduate with their class in California.
• The JACL joins an ACLU lawsuit challenging a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act that expands the power of the FBI to secretly obtain records of U.S. citizens and permanent residents suspected of terrorist activities, which effectively amounts to searches without a warrant.
• The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives approves a resolution recognizing February 19 as a “Day of Remembrance.” Rep. Mike Honda, the sponsor of the resolution stated that the measure would create awareness about the incarceration.
• The UCLA Asian American Studies Center established the first endowed academic chair to focus on the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. It is the first of its kind in American higher education.
• March 11: A bill is approved by the Judiciary Committee of the Florida legislature to amend a provision in the state constitution that bars “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from purchasing land. The law was originally passed in 1926.
March: Doris Matsui wins a special election to fill the seat of her late husband, Robert Matsui. She represents California’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• November: Mazie Hirono is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the congresswoman for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district.
• February: Apolo Anton Ohno wins a gold medal in men’s speed skating in 500 meters at the Turin Winter Olympics.
• October: Yoichiro Nambu, a scientist at the University of Chicago, wins the Nobel Prize in physics along with two other scientists. Nambu is a naturalized citizen of the United States.
• September: Congress appropriates an additional $1 million to the Presidio Trust towards the establishment of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Historic Learning Center in San Francisco.
• March: Kiyo A. Matsumoto is nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York by President George W. Bush. She is the second female federal Asian American judge.
• October: President Barack Obama reestablishes the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
• February: Stuart Ishimaru is named the Acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
• March: Passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act includes $1 million appropriated for the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program.
• September: The U.S. Congress passes legislation recognizing the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence (MIS) with the Congressional Gold Medal.