OAKLAND – To mark the 35th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Aug. 10 issued a formal apology acknowledging the California Attorney General’s Office’s past complicity in the unjust deprivation of Japanese Americans’ civil rights and civil liberties during and after World War II.
“Today, my office formally apologizes for its past use of legal tools to deprive a generation of Japanese Californians of their liberty and financial security during the World War II era,” said Bonta. “The forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese American citizens remains among the darkest periods of our history, and the suffering it caused Japanese American families across California is incalculable.
“While we can never erase the horrors of the past, we must take steps to atone for past wrongs by answering the call for accountability, truth and reconciliation, racial healing and transformation. The California Attorney General’s Office deeply regrets its past complicity in these heinous violations of civil rights, and with this apology, recommits to its mission of protecting and defending civil liberties for all Americans.”
In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which targeted and imprisoned more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who primarily lived on the West Coast. California Attorney General Earl Warren testified before Congress in support of this order and enforced the use of the California Alien Land Law of 1913 to take possession of agricultural land owned by Japanese American families.
Warren later became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In “Redeeming Whiteness in the Shadow of Internment: Earl Warren, Brown, and a Theory of Racial Redemption” (Boston College Law Review, 1998), Sumi Cho of DePaul University writes, “Although he refused to issue a public apology during his lifetime, Warren admitted in his memoirs: ‘I have since deeply regretted the removal order and my own testimony advocating it, because it was not in keeping with our American concept of freedom and the rights of citizens. It demonstrates the cruelty of war when fear, get-tough military psychology, propaganda, and racial antagonism combine with one’s responsibility for public security to produce such acts.’”
In 1943, California Attorney General Robert Walker Kenny formed a special unit within the Attorney General’s Office to enforce the California Alien Land Law, which prohibited Asian immigrants from purchasing or leasing land until 1952, when the California Supreme Court declared the law violated the 14th Amendment.
In 1944, the California Attorney General’s Office joined the states of Washington and Oregon in submitting an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States, supporting the imprisonment of Fred Korematsu — a national civil rights hero who fought against the wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans — despite the lack of any evidence that he posed a security threat.
The Attorney General’s Office recognizes today that this was unequivocally incorrect.
“As racism, fear, and xenophobia continue to threaten our fundamental freedoms, Attorney General Bonta remains fully committed to fighting for the safety and inclusion of all of California’s diverse communities,” the Attorney General’s Office said, citing the following actions:
• Launching the Racial Justice Bureau within the California Department of Justice.
• Holding virtual convening against hate crime with California’s big-city mayors.
• Creating the Community Engagement Office within the California Department of Justice.
• Hosting a public webinar for the National Day of Racial Healing.
• Implementing new guidance, reports, and resources to help public and law enforcement better understand and address hate crimes.
The formal statement of apology reads as follows (footnotes omitted).
=*=
Today, the California Attorney General’s Office publicly acknowledges and apologizes to Americans of Japanese ancestry for the office’s role in the unjust deprivation of Japanese Americans’ civil rights and civil liberties during World War II.
As the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 recognizes, “a grave injustice” was done to citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry and the relocation and incarceration of these civilians was “motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”
In 1942, California Attorney General Earl Warren testified before Congress in support of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. In his testimony, Attorney General Warren assailed the loyalty of Japanese Americans, using unfounded speculation characterized as “evidence” to justify not only the arbitrary incarceration of some 120,000 Japanese Americans — including children — but also the use of the California Alien Land Law to take possession of agricultural land owned by Japanese American families.
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited Asian immigrants from purchasing or leasing land until 1952, when the California Supreme Court held the law violated the 14th Amendment. During and immediately after World War II, this office instituted over 70 escheat actions under the Alien Land Law to seize land owned by families of Japanese descent.
In 1943, CaliforniaAttorney General Robert Kenny created an “alien land unit” within the Office, which filed escheat cases against Japanese American families that were locked away in War Relocation Authority camps.
In 1945, the Attorney General’s Office received a $200,000 grant from the Legislature to investigate and prosecute more Alien Land Law cases as Japanese Americans began to return to California to find their homes had been burned down.
As the California Supreme Court ultimately recognized in 1952, the “real purpose”of the Alien Land Law “was the elimination of competition by [foreign-born] Japanese in farming California land” and the basis for the legislation was “race undesirability.”
In 1944, this office joined the states of Washington and Oregon in submitting an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in the **Korematsu v. United States** case, supporting the imprisonment of Fred Korematsu despitethe lack of any evidence that he posed a security threat. The amicus brief argued, “it was reasonable for the military commander to meet the danger threatened from the unidentified disloyal members of the group by excluding the group as a whole” because the military lacked “an adequate test of loyalty.”
We recognize today that this was unequivocally incorrect.
During times when some seek to fan the flames of xenophobia, hate, and intolerance, it is not enough to simply refrain from throwing stones. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” The modern revival of Alien Land Laws in several states and the resurgence of anti-Asian hate across our country present such a moment.
In the past, this office used legal tools to deprive a generation of Japanese Californians of their liberty and financial security. But, just as Earl Warren came to recognize it was wrong to advocate for Executive Order 9066, the California Attorney General’s Office can and must share with the country its regret and error in utilizing the Alien Land Law as an instrument of racial discrimination.
As attorney general of California, I am committed to defending the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens and residents of California. This includes confronting past errors at a time when racism, fear, and xenophobia once again threaten to assault the fundamental freedoms and rights we all share.
With deep regret for the actions of this office that contributed to the suffering of Japanese Americans during that era, I offer this sincere apology and re-commit this office to the equal protection of the life, liberty, and property of all Americans.