In 1980, under mounting pressure from the
Japanese American Citizens League and redress organizations,
[12] President
Jimmy Carter opened an investigation to determine whether the need to put Japanese Americans into internment camps had been justified by the government. He appointed the
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) to investigate the camps. The commission's report, titled “Personal Justice Denied,” found little evidence of Japanese disloyalty at the time and recommended the government pay
reparations to the survivors. In 1988, President
Ronald Reagan signed into law the
Civil Liberties Act, which apologized for the internment on behalf of the
U.S. governmentand authorized a payment of $20,000 to each individual camp survivor. The legislation admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".
[13] The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to 82,219 Japanese Americans who had been interned and their
heirs.