Redress and Reparations Movement for Japanese Americans
In the 1980’s, Yuri and Bill focused their activism efforts towards the redress and reparations movement for Japanese Americans; becoming organizers of the East Coast Japanese Americans for Redress and Reparations. They advocated for reparations and a government apology for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and spearheaded the campaign to bring the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to New York.
After nearly a decade of advocacy, eleven hearings held across the nation, and the testimony of over 750 witnesses, President Ronald Reagan issued a public apology on behalf of the government and signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988. Among other things, this act authorized $20,000 in reparations to each Japanese American internment survivor and their descendants.
In addition, Yuri founded the Day of Remembrance Committee in New York City to commemorate February 19 as the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized Executive Order 9066 which imprisoned 120,000 Japanese Americans.
Yuri (right) reading her testimony at the hearings in Washington, D.C.
Photo Courtesy of the Paul Bannai Collection
Yuri walking through an exhibit on Japanese internment camps at Ellis Island that was sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum. The photo on the far left is of Bill testifying at the redress and reparations hearings held in New York in 1981.
Photo by Corky Lee
Yuri speaks at the 1997 NY Day of Remembrance event. She wears a replica prisoner ID tag for the Jerome concentration camp. To her right is Tomo Spiegel, another camp survivor, who worked on behalf of the rights of Indigenous Ainu people.
Photo by Corky Lee