This is a recording of Shizu Sue Lofton's testimony at the public hearing during the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in Chicago, September 1981.

Link to Transcript:

http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/nei_japan/id/2436/rec/1

Citation:

Archives, Northeastern Illinois University, "013 Testimonies of Kazuko Ige, Shizu Sue Lofton, S. Garry Oniki, Akira Arai, Lillian K. Hayano, Panel on Impact on Family" (1981). Hearing before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (Chicago), September 22-23, 1981. 16.

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was created in 1980 to investigate the constitutional and ethical objections of Executive Order 9066. The CWRIC executed an official evaluation of the order and its impact on the formerly interned and their families, starting the process of reparations to the Japanese Americans for the time, property, and liberty they had lost. The CWRIC reviewed the facts and circumstances surrounding Executive Order 9066 and its impact on the affected; the Committee also sought appropriate remedies. In order to fulfill that mandate, the CWRIC held twenty days of hearings in cities throughout the United States: Anchorage, Cambridge, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The CWRIC heard testimonies from more than 750 witnesses of the internment experience. The results of these national hearings led to the passage of the Civil Liberties Act, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. This federal law granted the victims of the internment a formal government apology and financial reparations for the losses they had suffered.

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File number 007-04