The hardships didn’t end with their incarceration. Japanese Americans lost their homes and livelihoods during the war. Here’s how they fought for and won reparations for those losses.
May 13th, 2021, 11:00AM / BY Nolan Cool
This black metal suitcase belonged to Iku Tsuchiya. It went with her to Tanforan Assembly Center, then to the Topaz camp, and back home to San Leandro, California. (NMAH)
In 1983, the United States Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) asked, What if vandals broke into your home, sprayed graffiti, and ransacked your property simply because of race, gender, or religious affiliation? For some Japanese Americans during the 1940s, this was not a hypothetical question. The CWRIC s what if question really happened, as the nine-member commission explored in its investigation of the effects of Japanese American incarceration during World War II.