I was about nine years old at the time this occurred. I followed the war news avidly, keeping a scrap book of news clippings, particularly about the Pacific war, which was, after all, closer to home. I was thoroughly outraged that the "japs" had pulled the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and were gobbling up the Philippines and Southeast Asia, and I supported the war as best as a nine or ten year old kid could do by buying savings stamps and collecting cans and newspapers. But somehow or other I never could figure out in my young mind what locking up these nice people who owned the dime store had to do with advancing the war effort. And the answer, of course, is that it didn't. The war was simply an occasion for a quantum leap in the racial bigotry which was being practiced against people of asian descent. An excuse to strip these people of the economic gains they had achieved through their own hard work.

As a white American who never had to live through the internment I cannot begin to imagine what the Japanese-Americans went through. Consequently it is impossible for me to suggest what would constitute adequate redress, or even if such a thing is possible. I would suggest that some realistic financial compensation for actual economic losses would be a minimum starting point. I urge the Commission to study the question seriously. It has been forty years since this internment occured. Those involved should not have to wait longer for meaningful and realistic redress for their losses, both economic and emotional.

Sincerely,

[Signed]

LLOYDE LOREN ALTON, JR.