Licensing

Redress Hearings

The Redress hearings put on by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) created by President Jimmy Carter were a chance for internees to appeal to the government-appointed entity and have the looming issues of Internment and Redress be remedied accordingly. As both Sox Kitashima and Cherry Kinoshita recalled, it was a very emotional time for many.

Sox was both overwhelmed and inspired by the sheer number of people that came out to these hearings to speak. Counted at over six hundred, Sox also spoke at these hearings, of her difficult and dehumanizing experiences as a result of Executive Order 9066 and subsequent internment she had to live through.

The emotional and psychological pain that these internees suffered also came through for Cherry Kinoshita, who also spoke at the hearings. It was a realization for her, that the tragedy that she and others experienced was very deep – to have the irreversible disruption of everyday life affect you and define you for the remainder of your years.

These hearings were the very beginning steps forward for the Redress and Reparations campaign, and also the beginning of involvement for Cherry and Sox.

Source: Densho Digital Archive, http://archive.densho.org/main.aspx. Visual History Collections: Densho Visual History Collection, Cherry Kinoshita Interviews; Kitashima, Tsuyako Sox and Morimoto, Joy K., The Birth of an Activist: The Sox Kitashima Story. San Mateo: Asian American Curriculum Project, 2003.

Photo: Densho Digital Archive, http://archive.densho.org/main.aspx. Photo/Document Collections: National Archives and Records Administration Collection.