1990

On August 10th, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law, a legislation that granted reparations to Japanese Americans for the racial prejudice and failure of political leadership during World War II. In October 1990, President George H.W. Bush sent the first redress checks for $20,000 and formal letters of apology to the oldest surviving detainees. As part of the Redress Movement, the U.S. government strived to obtain restitution of civil rights and monetary compensation during the six decades that followed the mass confinement and removal of Japanese Americans during World War II. The U.S. government provided more than $1.6 billion in redress payments to 82,219 former camp inmates, an amount that did not compensate for their total losses.