Repairing America
An Account of the Movement for Japanese-American Redress

Book Description from Back Cover

The National Council for Japanese American Redress was founded in May 1979 for the sole purpose of obtaining monetary redress for Japanese, American victims of World War II concentration camps. It seeks compensation for injuries and damages suffered by the evacuees, the detainees, and the internees, or their heirs. Its members want reparation for the deprivation of their civil and constitutional rights; for wrongful evacuation, detention, and imprisonment and the suspension of due process; for loss of income, property, and education; for the degradation of internment and evacuation and for the psychological, social, and cultural damage inflicted by the United States government.

REPAIRING AMERICA takes a hard look at a past mistake. It states that only through the mighty symbolism of financial reparations to the victims and their heirs can the healing of America take place. The price of admitting that this action was wrong must be more than just a formal apology. To insure that it never happens again, the punishment must fit the crime.

Background on William Hohri from the Back Cover

"I am a Japanese-American, one of the 125,000 victims, a Christian with Taoist leanings, a participant in the civil rights and peace movements of the 1940s through the 1960s, and a leader of one element of the redress movement, in short, a person who feels strongly about the issues and events described. Much of my life since 1979 has been given to the movement, so the memoir merges with the history."