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California Apologizes for Internment of Japanese Americans

Associated Press

   SACRAMENTO - California lawmakers on Thursday became the first
   political leaders in the nation's most populous state to apologize for
   discriminating against Japanese Americans and helping the U.S.
   government send them to internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl
   Harbor during World War II.

   The Assembly unanimously passed the resolution and welcomed several
   people who were imprisoned in the camps and their families. Several
   lawmakers gave somber statements and gathered at the entrance of the
   chamber after the vote to hug and shake hands with victims like
   96-year-old Kiyo Sato.

   Sato said young people need to know about the 120,000 Japanese
   Americans who were sent to internment camps during the war.

   "We need to remind them that this can't happen again,'' she said.

   The resolution came a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a Day of
   Remembrance for Feb. 19, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an
   executive order in 1942 that led to the imprisonment of Japanese
   Americans across 10 camps in the U.S. West and Arkansas.

   The governors of Idaho and Arkansas also proclaimed it a Day of
   Remembrance, and events are held nationwide.

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