Reparation

The image is of a lonely Korean woman in her late 60s, working in a back street bar in Shanghai. It could be Manila. Or Taipei. She is quiet. No one asks how she got there, so no one answers. The image and the silence haunt Bok Lim Kim, a La Jolla resident who has for a decade tried to raise awareness of sex crimes committed against Korean and other Asian women during World War II. The euphemism was "comfort girls." In reality, they were sex slaves.

David Tamashiro's proposal on redress/reparation for Japanese Americans (Op/Ed, Dec. 14) is not only unsettling, it is downright dangerous. He suggests "that each internee voluntarily contribute 1% of the settlement proposed by the House bill in order to pay the national debt." Though he cites a precedent for "going the third mile" in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, there is another story that we in the redress/reparation movement look to for historical inspiration: the movement to resist the camps on the grounds that not only were they immoral but also unconstitutional.

The United States need not pat itself on the back for finally providing reparations to Japanese-American citizens who were interned (read imprisoned) during World War II. Justice delayed is justice denied. The sight of 100-year-olds receiving their checks should be a source of shame and embarrassment to all Americans (Part B, Oct. 13). There was no more justification for interning Japanese-Americans than German-Americans and Italian-Americans. That the freedom and livelihood of Asians, and Asians alone, were taken away, is painful evidence of the potency of racism in the 1940s.

Re "Why I Don't Want Reparations for Slavery," Commentary, July 15: I am so glad John McWhorter does not want reparations for slavery. That may leave more for those of us who realize reparations are deserved. Although I was born and raised in New Jersey, both of my late parents were born and raised in South Carolina, and both were grandchildren of slaves. As I grew up, I listened to the sordid accounts of murder, mayhem, beatings, other physical abuse, sexual abuse, degradation, humiliation, insults, separation of families and other dehumanizing actions heaped upon African slaves here in the United States.

As your Jan. 10 news report ("Pursuit of WWII Redress Hits Japanese Boardrooms") has alluded to, Japanese government officials and right-wingers, even some moderates, insist that all claims resulting from Japanese World War II transgressions have been settled by the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty, citing the provision in Article 16 in which the Allied nations agreed to waive all reparations in light of the postwar financial hardship Japan was experiencing....

President Bush helped to rectify an injustice in American history when in 1990 he began sending letters of apology along with redress checks to Japanese-Americans who were unjustly interned during World War II. Now he can ensure that this vitally important program is completed. The White House will soon receive a bill from Congress that would authorize an extra $400 million in federal funding to complete redress payments, authorized four years ago.