In 1988 the Civil Liberties Act authorized federal redress to an estimated amount of 65,000 surviving Japanese-Americans. They are only half the number of the Japanese- Americans that the government forcibly evacuated, relocated and detained during World War II. On August 10, 1988 President Reagan signed the law.
This law acknowledges the injustice of the treatment of the Japanese-Americans, and apologizes to them on behalf of the United States. The government is said to have committed the injustice "without adequate security reasons and without any acts of espionage or sabotage." Congress established the Commission in 1980 to evaluate the extent of the tragedy and to recommend appropriate action for it. The Act concludes that the Federal actions against Japanese- Americans "were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."
To finance the redress the law created the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund. The board of directors for this Fund is responsible for disbursing funds to inform the public about what happened to the Japanese Americans, to prevent such an event from happening again to any minority group. The Fund also holds the money upon which the Attorney General draws for paying financial redress. To provide financial redress and other purposes, the law authorizes the payment of $1.25 billion. From that a sum of $20,000 is to be paid to each eligible Japanese-American still living on August 10, 1988.
The Act also provides legal remedies through certain Federal reviews. One provision requires each Federal Department or agency to review cases for the full restitution of any position, status, or entitlement lost by a Japanese-American because of his or her evacuation, relocation, and internment during World War II.