Licensing

Naturalization Ceremony, June 3, 1960

The McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act passed in 1952, allowing Issei to apply for and receive American citizenship after so many years.

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 provided for an apology and public acknowledgment that the U.S. Government's incarceration of Japanese Americans was wrong, found to be based on racism, wartime hysteria, and lack of political leadership. Payments of $20,000 were made to surviving American Nikkei who had been "incarcerated in a U.S. 'internment' camp" when President Reagan signed the bill.

Photo: ONLC 828, Gift of Endow Family.

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