HR 12
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Date of Hearing: February 18, 2025
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES
Blanca Pacheco, Chair
HR 12 (Muratsuchi) – As Introduced February 11, 2025
SUBJECT: Japanese American concentration camps.
SUMMARY: Declares February 19, 2025, as a Day of Remembrance in this state to increase
public awareness of the events surrounding the incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry
during World War II. Specifically, this resolution makes the following legislative findings:
1) On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066
(EO9066), under which more than 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in
10 concentration camps scattered throughout western states during World War II, inflicting a
great human cost of abandoned homes, businesses, farms, careers, professional
advancements, disruption to family life, and public humiliation.
2) Despite their families being incarcerated behind barbed wire in the United States,
approximately 33,000 veterans of Japanese ancestry fought bravely for our country during
World War II, serving in the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, and the Military Intelligence Service.
3) On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Wilson Reagan signed into law the federal Civil
Liberties Act of 1988, finding that EO9066 was not justified by military necessity and,
instead, was caused by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.
The federal Civil Liberties Act of 1988 apologized on behalf of the people of the United
States for the evacuation, incarceration, and relocation of Americans and permanent residents
of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
4) On June 21, 2000, President William Jefferson Clinton designated 20 Japanese Americans,
who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to
receive the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, bringing the total
number of Japanese Americans who so received the Medal of Honor to 21.
5) In 2010, President Barack Obama granted the Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the
100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team in recognition of their
dedicated service during World War II.
6) On February 20, 2020, the Assembly of the State of California adopted House Resolution 77,
which apologized to all Americans of Japanese ancestry for its past actions in support of the
unjust exclusion, removal, and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II,
and for its failure to support and defend the civil rights and civil liberties of Japanese
Americans during this period.
7) Given recent national events, it is all the more important to learn from the mistakes of the
past and to ensure that such an assault on freedom will never again happen to any community
in the United States.
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8) February 19, 2025, marks 83 years since the signing of EO9066 and a policy of grave
injustice against American citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry.
FISCAL EFFECT: This resolution is keyed non-fiscal by Legislative Counsel.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by: Michael Erke / RLS. / (916) 319-2800