SECTIONS 13000 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 13000

13000. (a) This part shall be known and may be cited as the
California Civil Liberties Public Education Act. The purpose of the
California Civil Liberties Public Education Act is to sponsor public
educational activities and development of educational materials to
ensure that the events surrounding the exclusion, forced removal, and
internment of civilians and permanent resident aliens of Japanese
ancestry will be remembered, and so that the causes and circumstance
of this and similar events may be illuminated and understood.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares that the federal Commission
on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was
established by Congress in 1980 to "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."
(c) The lessons to be learned from the internment of
Japanese-Americans during World War II are embodied in "Personal
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
resident aliens 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."
(d) The Legislature further finds and declares that President
Ronald Reagan signed into law the federal Civil Liberties Act of 1988
and declared during the signing ceremony that "This is a great day
for America." In that act the Congress declared as follows:
"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 loses 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."