National Coalition for Redress/Reparations welcomes each of you here tonight to the 1986 Day of Remembrance Commemoration.

Each year we gather to commemorate February 19, the infamous day that Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which sent 120,000 of us into concentration camps.

We are here to remember our past, the injustice, humiliation and terror of the evacuation in order to translate the emotions into action, a fight for justice.  We are here to commemorate our courageous Issei pioneers who lived with the hostile environmental and social condition and the assault of the government so that we can strengthen the threads that they have woven into the fabric of this country.  We are here to recognize the need for the continuing vigilance against prejudice and discrimination, such as the rising anti-Asian violence, the scape-goating of Asians for economic worries, flaunting of distorted media images of Asians and a hair salon in West Hollywood that blatantly calls itself. J.A.P.S.S.

We are here to educate ourselves on the various segments of the redress movement in the courts and legislative branches so that each of us can actively participate in their successful passage.  We are here to listen to and learn from each other, Issei, Nissei, Sansei, Yonsei, yellow, black, brown, red and white to find out how we can collectively support each other and ask “what can I do to build our common future?”  We are here to energize each other and bind our ties in the community and greater community of our world where the struggles in the Phillippines, Central America and South Africa command our united commitment.

NCRR is a grassroots organization that began in 1979 and coalesced with other redress groups around the nation in order to mount an organized effect, united campaign for redress and reparations.  Our central belief is that the direction and content of the redress movement is rooted in the community and must reflect community voice and needs.  After forty years of virtual silence, we have the federal Commission hearings where the people stood up and spoke of their anger and bitterness with dignity, demanding justice, resulting in strong Commission recommendations; the introduction of coram nobis cases of Hirabayashi, Korematsu and Yasui; the NCJAR class –action suit, and two bills in Congress, HR442 and S1053.   It is vital to understand that the redress and reparations must be realized at the three levels of government, the Executive, the Judicial and the Legislative, as all three levels sanctioned the incarceration.  Regarding Executive Order 9066, that set in motion what civil libertarians have called a “travesty” of human rights unprecedented in U.S. history, it was only in 1976 that former President Gerald Ford finally rescinded this infamous mandate (formal apology from Executive branch?).

The recent court decision represents significant progress on the judicial front, yet more work remains.  The Supreme Court has yet to overturn the Korematsu, Hirabayashi and Yasui cases:  they remain as legal precedents for a future generation of Americans.  The decision in the class-action suit declared the statute of limitation to be inapplicable to this particular case and allows for the case to be heard.  (Joyce Okinaka will speak to this topic later).

There is good reason for guarded optimism on the legislative front.  HR 442 awaits action in the House subcommittee on Administrative Law and Govern- mental Affairs.  There are three co-sponsors of the bill, the chair is sympathetic and of the ten committee members, only two more votes for a total of six are needed to assure passage of HR442 to full committee.  Representatives Mineta and Matsui are optimistic once the bill reaches the floor of the full House.

In the Senate, S1053 is in the Governmental Affairs Committee with Senator Ted Stevens, a strong supporter who is the chair of the committee.  Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga are among the 27 co-sponsors of the bill.  Twenty-four additional votes are needed for a majority of 51.  However, many bills have become law with fewer sponsors.  The redress and reparation movement, then, remains alive and well, and all three arms of the struggle—the coram nobis cases, the class-action suits, and the legislative campaign continue to adapt to changing circumstances and to advance their respective cases.  But it is critical to understand that the victories of each have been made possible only by virtue of the groundwork laid by the cumulative past achievement of the entire redress/reparations movement and of the Nikkei community as a whole.  Every gain by one part of the movement complements the continuing efforts of the others.

Redress and reparation will not be won by any single organization, nor by any single court decision, nor by the passage of any single piece of legislation.  Redress and reparations will be won only by a community united, a community committed to building a common future in which narrow loyalties and differing strategies give way to a coordinated struggle for justice and full equality.

Each of us must help the success of the campaign and increase the visibility of the issue.  Write to subcommittee chairs and members, urging them to support HR442 and S1053 and to expedite their passages.

• Write to, or even better, visit your local Congressional representative.

• Contact friends and relatives living in other states to write to or visit their Congressional representative. This is a nationwide campaign.
• Join NCRR, attend our meetings which are held on the second Saturday of each month at 11AM in the JACCC, room 410, the next one will be in March.
• Organize meetings in your home to discuss R&R at universities, civic and labor groups, churches, etc.

After this program, persons will circulate sign-up sheets so that you can become actively involved.

The redress movement is a historic opportunity for the growth and transformation of the Nikkei community.  We must see it as part of the larger struggle for human rights and full citizenship rights for all citizens.  The social and political implica-tions are diverse, multi-faceted and far-reaching.  We must ask ourselves: after R&R is won, what lies beyond?  The answer to that question will be determined now, as we draw upon the opportunities of the present and the resources of our past in bridging our struggles and in forging new alliances as we move forward to ward a common future.