The City of San Diego passed Resolution No. 76068 during WWII, which “urged” the FBI to remove persons of Japanese ancestry “from San Diego and vicinity” because Japanese people were “cause for great concern” in the community. On September 19, 2022, the City Council rescinded that Resolution. The Council acknowledged that the City of San Diego failed “to support and defend the civil rights and civil liberties” of Japanese Americans during this period and apologized for this failure.
The San Diego resolution was modeled on the California State Assembly’s House Resolution No. 77 which passed in 2020 and also apologized “to all Americans of Japanese ancestry for its past actions in support of the unjust exclusion, removal, and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II . . . .”
It’s never too late to acknowledge past wrongs. It’s never too late to recommit ourselves to the cause of defending civil rights and civil liberties. To learn more about the history of Japanese American incarceration during WWII, check out the work of this important nonprofit organization, Densho, striving to preserve the stories of those who were “unjustly incarcerated” during the war.
At McKenzie Scott PC, we are proud to use our legal skills to fight on behalf of those wrongly targeted by state and federal governments on account of their race, ethnicity, national origin, or other protected statuses. The California State Legislature has declared that the “rich diversity of the people of California requires a justice system that is equally accessible and free of bias . . . .” Bus. & Prof. Code 6001.3(b)(1). In the civil-rights and criminal-defense cases we accept, and the people we choose to fight for, we are committed to increasing equal access to justice and pursuing a more just and fair community where we can all live and thrive.