City of Philadelphia - File #: 180718

• File #: 180718
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 6/21/2018
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 6/21/2018
• Title: Honoring the groundbreaking civil rights legacy of the Japanese American Citizens League on the occasion of its national convention in Philadelphia, and recognizing the 30th Anniversary of the organization's successful redress campaign that led to the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing a national apology and financial reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Gym, Councilmember Green, Councilmember Parker, Councilmember Oh, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Quiñones Sánchez, Councilmember Greenlee, Councilmember Domb, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Jones

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
6/21/2018	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed on This Week's Final Passage Calendar	Pass
6/21/2018	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED

Title
Honoring the groundbreaking civil rights legacy of the Japanese American Citizens League on the occasion of its national convention in Philadelphia, and recognizing the 30th Anniversary of the organization's successful redress campaign that led to the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing a national apology and financial reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II.

Body
WHEREAS, The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) was founded in 1929 as the first Asian American civil rights organization in the United States, with the goal of expanding citizenship rights for all Asian Americans; and

WHEREAS, The JACL was formed as a consortium of California and Washington-based organizations led by Nisei, Japanese immigrants' children who were born with American citizenship, who wished to build power to advocate for their community's civil rights and civil liberties; and

WHEREAS, The JACL's first campaigns included successful pushes both to amend the Cable Act of 1922, which initially revoked women's citizenship if they married men ineligible for citizenship, and to pass the Nye-Lea Act, which made veterans of World War I eligible for naturalization regardless of race; and

WHEREAS, During World War II, the JACL transformed a modest newsletter into a widely-circulated newspaper, the Pacific Citizen, which shared stories of Japanese American resistance, promoted Japanese American patriotism, and reported on the court cases of Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu, and others engaged in civil disobedience. The newspaper was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1946, and continues to be a leading news source for the Japanese American community news today; and

WHEREAS, In the face of escalating tensions between the US and Japan in the early 1940s, the JACL, then under the direction of President Saburo Kido and Executive Secretary Mike Masaok, embarked on an aggressive public education campaign to affirm th...