The National Japanese American Historical Society was organized in 1980 in San Francisco, CA to record and tell the story of the Nisei Soldier in WW II. 

In March of 1981, the Society created the Go For Broke museum exhibit that tells the story of how Nisei Soldiers from under clouds of doubt and suspicion in Hawaii and from behind the barbed wire of American concentration camps fought with courage an d sacrifices in Italy and France to become the most highly decorated regiment in the 200 hundred year military history of the United States. 

In November 1981, the Society created the Yankee Samurai museum exhibit that tells the story of 6,000 Nisei Soldiers who trained in the Japanese language and Japanese military intelligence at the Presidio of San Francisco and in Minnesota and served in every theater, in every campaign and in every major battle in the Pacific and Asian areas and made significant contributions to Allied victory in WW II. 

In August of 1982, the Go For Broke /Yankee Samurai exhibit opened for a one year showing at the Los Angeles County Museum that broke all museum records for attendance. Dr. Roger Kennedy, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History came to see it and immediately asked that the exhibit be shown at the Smithsonian in 1984. 

But Kennedy changed his mind . He asked that the Nisei Soldier exhibit be used as the Smithsonian contribution to the Bicentennial Anniversary if the United States Constitution in 1987. This startling idea provoked violent protest in Washington from Congressman, the media, veterans, and the private citizens. How dare Smithsonian put on a controversial exhibit that made public a constitutional failure to celebrate the birthday of the sacred document. 

At a Smithsonian meeting in 1986, I reported to the exhibit committee that the American public would accept the exhibit with enthusiasm. At public exhibits in San Francisco, Los Angeles, the State Capitol in Sacramento, the Cannon house of Representative Building in Washington, the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas, and at the McArthur Memorial at Norfolk Virginia, thousands of thousands of Americans in record breaking numbers were appalled the internment of Japanese Americans and admired the loyalty of Nisei Soldiers. Dr. Kennedy was convinced that his idea was correct and pushed on. 

In the meantime, President Carter established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment o f Citizens in 1980, which reported to Congress in December of 1982 that the internment was caused by race prejudice, hysteria and a failure of national leadership and that there was no military necessity for the internment. 

Redress bills were introduced in Congress in 1983 and in 84, 85, and 86, but they all died in committee. Finally in 1987, House Bill 442 was introduced on the floor of the House of Representative s and was passed on September 17, 1987. 

On October 1, 1987 the Smithsonian exhibit on Japanese Americans, A More Perfect Union was dedicated on the west steps of the United States Capitol Building. It was lauded by the New York Times, the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times and supported by the VFW and American Legion. It is still on display and has been by over sixty million visitors. 

442 Veterans, Senator Dan Inouye and Spark Matsunaga and MIS veteran Norman Mineta redoubled their efforts and succeeded in getting Congress to pas the Redress Bill of 1988 and sent to President Ronald Reagan for signature. But justice and the OMB recommended veto an d the thousands of letters pouring into the White House on the Bill were 15 to 1 in favor of veto. 

At this juncture June Masuda Goto of Santa Ana, CA wrote a personal letter to the President with newspaper clippings of an event that occurred in December 1945. The Masuda family had returned their family farm in Santa Ana from Poston relocation Camp, carrying the ashes of 442 hero, Sergeant Kazuo Masuda who did in Italy. But their neighboring farmers threatened and intimidated the Masudasto get out. The Santa Ana city refused to permit the family to bury Sgt. Masuda's ashes in the city cemetery. The commotion hit the national media. General Vinegar Joe Stillwell, Commander of the 6th Army at Presidio on San Francisco, who used MIS intelligence men in the Second Burma Campaign ordered his PR officer, Captain Ronald Reagan to schedule a press conference in Santa Ana. On the front porch of the Masuda farm, the General stated that the Nisei had bought a big hunk of America with their blood. Captain Reagan followed, stating that the blood that dissolves into the sand of beaches is still all the same color. June continued by writing that she had spoken to public schools and PTA groups countless times, telling how that great American, Ronald Reagan had enabled her family to return to their farm and to live and to work in peace. There was no way that the President could make a liar out of June. Reagan signed the Redress Bill on August 10, 1988 and apologized for the great injustice done to Japanese Americans in 1942. 

From a historical perspective, the status of the United Sates citizenship for Japanese Americans started at zero one hundred years ago when naturalization was denied to Japanese immigrants. The citizenship status turned to zero, zero in January 1942, when Selective Service changed the draft classification of Nisei from 1A to 4C, or enemy aliens. Then to zero, zero zero in February 1942, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, incarcerating 112,000 Japanese, 70,000 who were Nisei citizens of the United States into American concentration camps. 

Soon after the war, naturalization rights were granted to Japanese immigrants in 1952. But it took another forty years for the blemish on Nisei citizenship to be removed.