U.S. Apologizes for Japanese Interment
The interment of thousands of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II is a lasting affront to the promise of the basic civil rights due all people in the United States. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation containing an official apology for the internment. He issued a somewhat weaker statement along with it: ''It's not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle. Yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was just that, a mistake.''
