FINAL BILL REPORT

HB 1460

C 68 L 03

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Creating a Washington state day of civil liberties remembrance.

Sponsors: By Representatives Pettigrew, Santos, Sullivan, Chase, Linville, Schual-Berke, Veloria, Rockefeller, Conway, Darneille, Wallace, Upthegrove, Kenney and McDermott.

House Committee on State Government

Senate Committee on Government Operations & Elections

Background:

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in 1942. This order authorized the military to designate military areas, and remove any person considered a danger. On March 2, 1942, Lt. General John L. DeWitt, West Coast Commander U.S. Army, issued Public Proclamation No. 1, which designated the entire West coast a restricted military area. The Army issued the first Civilian Exclusion Order for Japanese Americans on Bainbridge Island on March 24, 1942. By June 1942, more than 110,000 Japanese had been placed in temporary assembly centers. Over 7,000 residents from Bellevue, Renton, Tukwila, Kent, Auburn, and Seattle were sent to Camp Harmony, a temporary assembly center on the grounds of the Puyallup Fair. From the temporary assembly centers, Japanese Americans were moved to 10 concentration camps scattered throughout the west. The Japanese Americans returned home at the end of World War II. In 1988 HR 442 was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, which provided reparations for surviving internees. Beginning in 1990, $20,000 in redress payments was sent to each eligible Japanese American.

Summary:

February 19 is recognized as Civil Liberties Day of Remembrance, but is not considered a legal holiday.

Votes on Final Passage:

House 96  0

Senate 49  0 

Effective: July 27, 2003