Think reparations are impossible? The story of Japanese Americans proves otherwise
Kay Ochi still remembers the small, brown envelope her family received from the US Department of Justice more than 30 years ago.
It looked like any other piece of official government mail, with a Washington DC postmark. But inside was a printed letter, signed by President George HW Bush – and two checks for $20,000, one for each of her parents.
Her parents were among the 82,000 Japanese Americans who received redress after being forced into concentration camps during the second world war under the guise of national security, in one of the darkest chapters in modern US history. The payments were the culmination of a hard-fought, 20year movement, driven by sansei, or third-generation Japanese Americans, like Ochi seeking justice for their elders.
Ochi’s parents needed the money – incarceration had stalled their careers – and they used it for a new roof, to update their kitchen, then shared some with their four daughters. But it was about more than money.
“We were vindicated,” said Ochi, now 76. “It began to lift the weight most of us have carried around.”
The checks made Japanese Americans one of the only ethnic groups ever to win reparations from the US government. Now, decades later, their victory is taking on new weight as Black Americans fight for reparations of their own.
Proposals to compensate descendants for the lasting harms of slavery and discrimination are under way across the US, most notably in California, where a first-in-the-nation taskforce recently recommended a formal apology, cash payments to the descendants of enslaved people, and other policies to address enduring discrimination. But those efforts have also invited a vocal backlash and will face a prolonged battle to win over public and political support.
Many veterans of the Japanese