WHEREAS, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, pursuant to which 120,000 Japanese Americans and legal resident aliens were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II; and

WHEREAS, The alleged basis for incarceration was military necessity; and

WHEREAS, President Gerald Ford formally rescinded Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1976; and

WHEREAS, Congress adopted legislation on July 21, 1980, which was signed by President Jimmy Carter on July 31, 1980, to establish the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) to investigate the claim that the incarceration of Japanese Americans and legal resident aliens during World War II was justified by military necessity; and

WHEREAS, The CWRIC held 20 days of hearings on this matter and heard from over 750 witnesses and published its findings in a report entitled “Personal Justice Denied”; and

WHEREAS, The CWRIC principal finding and conclusion was “the promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decision which followed from it—detention, ending detention, and ending exclusion—were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”; and

WHEREAS, Congress adopted House Resolution 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-383), which stated “for these fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights of these individuals of Japanese ancestry, the Congress apologized on behalf of the Nation”; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law on August 10, 1988, at which time he proclaimed, “This is a great day for America”; and

WHEREAS, The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 established the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, the purpose of which is “to sponsor research and public educational activities and to publish and distribute the hearings, findings, and recommendations of the CWRIC so that the events surrounding the exclusion, forced removal, and internment of civilians and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry will be remembered, and so that the causes and circumstances of this and similar events may be illuminated and understood”; and

WHEREAS, The Civil Liberties Public Education Fund will sponsor a National Day of Remembrance on February 19, 1998, to reflect upon the effects of Executive Order 9066, the activities of the CWRIC, and the adoption of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988; and

WHEREAS, The purpose of the National Day of Remembrance is to educate the public about the lessons learned from the internment to ensure that it never happens again; and

WHEREAS, Organizations will sponsor related activities in various locations in California; and

WHEREAS, California’s spotlight on its Day of Remembrance provides an opportunity for all people to reflect on and relate to other injustices that human beings have endured in our world’s history; and

WHEREAS, February 19, 1998, will mark the 56-year anniversary of the date Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and

WHEREAS, 1998 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988; now, therefore, be it