SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Assembly has apologized for discriminating against Japanese Americans and helping the U.S. government send them to internment camps during World War II.
The Assembly passed a resolution Thursday that also apologized for discrimination leading up to the war.
It comes a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the governors of Idaho and Arkansas declared Feb. 19 a Day of Remembrance. That's the day in 1942 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order leading to the imprisonments.
California lawmakers gave somber statements and hugged and shook hands with people who were imprisoned in the camps and with their families.
The Democratic assemblyman who introduced the resolution said the state would be apologizing for a time when "California led the racist anti-Japanese American movement.”
The measure received bipartisan support, a rarity in the Legislature.
