Harry Kawahara, speaking as chair of the Japanese American Citizens League’s Pacific Southwest District Redress Committee, testified before the CWRIC about why Japanese Americans could not “just forget” the camps and why reparations were necessary.

• Why Redress, Why Now: Addressed critics asking why Japanese Americans were raising the issue nearly 40 years later. He argued the experience was too deeply embedded—part of their psyches, legacy, and identity.

• Metaphor of Violation: Compared incarceration to rape by one’s own country—freedom, dignity, and civil liberties stripped away, leaving victims with shame, guilt, and silence. He explained how Japanese cultural values of shame made it especially difficult to speak about the camps for decades.

• Breaking the Silence: Described recent community workshops as therapeutic and cathartic, finally allowing survivors to release suppressed anger, frustration, and rage. Many had even avoided talking about camp with their children until pressed.

• Psychological Impact: Emphasized how the camps shattered self-esteem, fostered self-hatred, and damaged ethnic identity. The scars lingered across generations.

• Not Waiting 39 Years: Listed decades of organized efforts: wartime court challenges, property-loss campaigns (1945–52), repeal of the Emergency Detention Act (1960s), and other fights for Social Security and retirement credit. Redress, he argued, was part of a long struggle.

• What Justice Means: Invoked school lessons about democracy—when harmed, defamed, or falsely imprisoned, one seeks redress. He stressed that until personal reparations are made, Japanese Americans’ reputations remain tainted and many Americans still view them as disloyal.

• On Compensation: When pressed on numbers, Kawahara pointed to $25,000 per internee or heir—a figure seriously discussed in the community, totaling around $3 billion. While acknowledging political realities, he deferred to Minoru Yasui’s words: “If not this Congress, then the next one. Five years, ten years, twenty years—we will return.”