| Feburary 19, 1942 |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order No. 9066, ordering the removal of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry from Military Zone 1 into small temporary assembly centers, and then relocated into one of ten large internment camps. |
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| July 2, 1948 |
Congress passes the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act. |
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| July 1970 |
Edison Uno, a long-time activist from San Francisco and lecturer at San Francisco State, formally proposes a redress resolution at the biennial Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) convention. JACL passed the resolution. |
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| 1970 |
Henry Miyatake, an engineer in Seattle, begins his advocacy for redress; it eventually evolves into the "Seattle Plan." |
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| September 1971 |
President Richard Nixon signs a bill to repeal Title II of the Internal Security Act of 1950 (Public Law 92-128). |
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| 1971-1974 |
Robert T. Matsui is elected to the Sacramento City Council. |
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| June 1974 |
First redress bill is introduced by Representative George Danielson, Democrat from California. The bill does not pass in committee. |
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| July 1974 |
JACL National Convention in Portland formally appoints the National Redress Committee. |
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| 1975-1978 |
Robert T. Matsui is reelected to the Sacramento City Council. |
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| February 19, 1976 |
President Gerald Ford formally rescinds Executive Order 9066. |
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| July 1976 |
JACL National Convention in Sacramento once again affirms redress as a priority issue. |
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| 1977 |
Robert T. Matsui becomes vice mayor of Sacramento. |
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| July 1978 |
JACL Convention ratifies redress for former internees with an individual payment of $25,000 and trust fund to benefit Japanese Americans. |
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| November 1978 |
Robert T. Matsui becomes the first Sansei to be elected to Congress representing the Sacramento Area. |
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| November 25, 1978 |
The first "Day of Remembrance" event is held at Camp Harmony, the Puyallup, Washington Assembly Center. |
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| January 1979 |
JACL National Committee for Redress meets for the first time with Japanese American members of both the U.S. Senate (Daniel Inouye, Spark Matsunaga) and House of Representatives (Norman Mineta and Robert Matsui) to develop the best strategy for redress. |
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| August 1979 |
Senators Inouye and Matsunaga introduce S. 1647 (110 cosponsors) to create the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) Act. |
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| September 1979 |
Nine Democrats introduce H.R. 5499, the companion bill to establish the CWRIC. |
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| November 1979 |
Congressman Mike Lowry (State of Washington) introduces H.R. 5977, the Japanese American Human Rights Violation Redress Act. The bill asked for compensation of $15,000 plus $15 for each day of camp for each internee. |
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| May 1980 |
Amended bill S. 1647, which included study of Aleutian Islanders during World War II, passes Senate. |
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| July 1980 |
The Houses passes the amended version, H.R. 5499, by a vote of 297-109. |
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| July 1980 |
President Jimmy Carter signs, creating into law the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act. |
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| July 1981 |
The CWRIC conducts hearings and takes testimonies from more than 750 witnesses in nine cities. |
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| Deccember 1982 |
The Commission issues its report, Personal Justice Denied, which concluded that there was no "military necessity" in issuing E.O. 9066, and that the major reasons for incarceration of Japanese Americans was the result of "race prejudice, wartime hysteria, and the failure of political leadership." |
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| January 1983 |
Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui and Gordon Hirabayashi file a petition to reopen their wartime cases on a rarely used writ of error, coram nobis. |
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| March 1983 |
William Hohri (chair of the National Council of Japanese American Redress) files a lawsuit on behalf of 25 Japanese Americans for various violations, and sues for $27 billion. |
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| June 1983 |
The CWRIC issues recommendations for wartime violations of constitutional rights during World War II. The recommendations were that the president offer an apology in writing, that Congress make a compensation of $20,000 to each surviving evacuee and internee and that restitution be paid to the surviving evacuated Aleuts. |
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| October 1983 |
Congressman Jim Wright of Texas introduces H.R. 4110 (acceptance and implementation of the CWRIC's findings and recommendations). Senator Spark Matsunaga introduces companion bill S. 2116 in November. |
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| November 1983 |
U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel grants Korematsu writ of coram nobis and issues a decision which vacated Korematsu's conviction in 1944. |
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| January 1984 |
U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Belloni grants motion by the government to vacate Yasui's conviction. |
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| January 1985 |
Majority Leader Jim Wright introduces H.R. 442 (named in honor of the Famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team with 99 cosponsors). Senator Spark Matsunaga introduces companion bill S. 1053 in May 1985 with 25 cosponsors. |
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| February 1986 |
U.S. District Court Judge Donald Voorhees rules suppression of evidence by the War Department was a fundamental error and vacates Gordon Hirayabashi's exclusion order conviction. |
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| January 1987 |
Majority Leader Foley introduces H.R. 442 (124 cosponsors). Senator Matsunaga introduces companion bill S. 1009 (71 cosponsors) in April 1987. |
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| September 17, 1987 |
The House passes H.R. 442, with a vote of 243-141, on the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Senate passes S. 1009 in April 1988 by a 69-27 margin. |
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| August 10, 1988 |
President Ronald Reagan signs H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. |
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| September 1989 |
Senate approves an appropriation of $17.3 billion. The House and Senate negotiators settled on an entitlement program for redress in conference committee. |
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| November 21, 1989 |
President George H.W. Bush signs H.R. 2991, establishing a redress entitlement program. |
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| October 1990 |
First of nine redress payments are issued to the oldest living former internees. |
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| September 1992 |
President George H.W. Bush signs H.R. 4551, wherein all eligible Japanese Americans will receive their redress money with additional groups added. |
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Bibliography
Chuman, Frank F . The Bamboo People: The Law and Japanese Americans . California: Publisher's Inc., 1976.
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Personal Justice Denied . Washingtion, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1983.
Daniels, Roger, Sandra C. Taylor and Harry H.L. Kitano, eds. Japanese Americans: From Relocation to Redress. Utah: University of Utah Press, 1986.
Hatamiya, Leslie T. Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 . California: Stanford University Press, 1993.
Irons, Peter. Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases . New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
______. Justice Delayed: The Record of the Japanese American Internment Cases . Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.
Maki, Mitchell T., Harry H.L. Kitano, and S. Megan Berthold. Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Muller, Eric L. Free To Die For Their Country: The Story of The Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
______. Special Editor. "Judgments Judged and Wrongs Remembered: Examining the Japanese American Civil Liberties Cases On Their Sixtieth Anniversary." Law and Contemporary Problems. no. 2, vol. 68. North Carolina: Duke University of School of Law, Spring 2005.
Shimabukuro, Robert Sadamu. Born in Seattle: The Campaign for Japanese American Redress . Washington: University of Washington Press, 2001.
Tateishi, John ed. And Justice For All: An Oral History Of The Japanese American Detention Camps. New York: Random House, 1984.
