![]() ![]() RELATED: Hawaii's Patsy Mink Honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom Mitsuye Endo, Supreme Court figure, seated at her desk in the administrative office at the Central Utah Relocation Center, 1942. The US Supreme Court ruled in her favor 9-0, however, it conveniently held the announcement of its ruling until the day after President Roosevelt lifted the exclusion order, and it failed to make any larger constitutional conclusions. She turned down an offer for conditional release by the US government and remained incarcerated at Topaz for two additional years so her case could continue. #APAHM - Brian Schatz May 13, 2015Įndo challenged the incarceration on the grounds of habeas corpus or unlawful imprisonment. Today, Bratt is the COO of an international law firm in the private sector where he gives advice on management.Mitsuye Endo was a selfless woman & her fight to end Japanese internment is deserving of the Medal of Freedom. In 1994, Irva Greene relieved him of his post but he remained in ORA as an advisor up until the day ORA’s reparations program was terminated. As the honor of being in charge of ORA was laid on him, Bratt took up the mantle proudly and without hesitation, drawing from his experiences to successfully distribute over $1.6 billion to 82,000 qualifying individuals. For one to be eligible, they would have to be alive the day the bill was passed on Augthey had to be living in America as a US citizen or have permanent residency they also had to be a person of Japanese ancestry.Īs someone who used to work in the Justice Department, Robert K Bratt is highly experienced and professional. ![]() It was no small feat for Bratt to build ORA up from a one-man team to a fully functioning office with a helpline set up for Japanese Americans to submit their claims. And would bring laptops to enter claims there on the spot.” The first two years, we did it every month or so. Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco, Salt Lake. As told by Bratt, “We would travel all over. Robert K Bratt talked about how he brought along laptops with them during their travels so they could submit claims immediately. It wasn’t an easy task as Bob Bratt had to do everything by himself without the help of modern technology.Īt one point, he had to go from office to state DMVs personally in order to verify identities and findings. With Robert K Bratt at the helm, he personally penned letter after letter to each living survivor or their heir to apologize on behalf of the nation. It is a step forward in recognizing the mistakes that have been made and shows a willingness to compensate and apologize for those mistakes. ![]() As noted by one individual, redress isn’t a means of erasing the past and sweeping it under the rug. Those who were eligible to receive redress will be given a payment of $20,000, along with a national apology. He was given 10 years to identify and track down those who were interned, or those who suffered racial discrimination during or after the war. The person that was put in charge of the program was none other than Robert K Bratt, a man passionate and dedicated to getting Japanese Americans the reparations that they so sorely deserve. However, the years have revealed the unfair treatment that many of these internees and victims have suffered, which resulted in the formation of ORA – Office of Redress Administration – following a long and hard-fought lawsuit by one Mitsuye Endo. 120,000 Japanese Americans were directly affected by World War II, whereby racial discrimination and political agendas forced them out of their homes and into internment camps which were described to be for their own protection. ![]()
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