SENATE RESOLUTION
8616
By Senators Hasegawa, Fortunato, Saldaña, Wagoner, and Warnick
WHEREAS, On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the United States military to forcibly remove and incarcerate more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, including 12,000 Japanese American residents of Washington State; and
WHEREAS, The first civilian evacuation order gave Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island, Washington less than one week to leave behind homes, personal belongings, farms, businesses, friends, and family and report to detention centers like Camp Harmony on the grounds of the Washington State fair in Puyallup, where hastily converted horse stables housed the evacuated families; and
WHEREAS, These detention centers were temporary quarters for the evacuees while the U.S. military department constructed mass incarceration sites for Japanese Americans located in remote inland areas of the United States; and
WHEREAS, This drastic policy of forced removal allegedly aimed to prevent acts of espionage and sabotage by Japanese Americans who were deemed untrustworthy and disloyal to the United States; and
WHEREAS, On March 23, 1943, the War Department organized the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of Japanese Americans, most of whom reported for military duty from the concentration camps in which they and their families were held as prisoners surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards; and
WHEREAS, More than 12,000 volunteers responded to questions about their loyalty and patriotism by amassing a battle record unparalleled in United States military history, earning a collective 7 Presidential Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1 Distinguished Service Medal, 588 Silver Stars, more than 4,000 Bronze Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Medals, 145 Soldier's Medals, 9,486 Purple Hearts, 16 decorations from France and Italy, and, in 2010, the Congressional Gold Medal; and
WHEREAS, Equally loyal and patriotic Japanese Americans fought to protect our constitutional rights and liberties through dissent, like University of Washington student and Auburn native Gordon Hirabayashi who was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for defying the military curfew on select civilians and refusing to evacuate when ordered; and
WHEREAS, In 1982, the congressional commission on wartime relocation and internment of civilians found "no military or security reason" for the incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry, but determined the cause as "racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership"; and
WHEREAS, Through this travesty of justice, Japanese Americans suffered immense economic loss of property and assets, experienced immeasurable physical and psychological harm as individuals and collectively as a community, and were deprived of their constitutional liberties without due process of law; and