The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation expresses sadness on the passing of President Jimmy Carter, a longtime supporter who called his signing of a 1980 law creating a commission to study the Japanese American incarceration “one of the most meaningful and important accomplishments of my presidency.”
Carter authorized the creation of the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which investigated the causes and effects of the Japanese American incarceration. That commission conducted multiple hearings in 1981 that were the first time many Japanese Americans spoke of their experiences being forced from their homes on the West Coast and incarcerated in 10 concentration camps around the country.
The commission’s recommendation of an apology by the federal government and payments of $20,000 to each surviving incarceree were part of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act written by then-Rep. Norman Mineta, D-Calif., who was a Heart Mountain incarceree.
The nation’s 39th president, Carter was a friend and inspiration to Douglas Nelson, the vice chair of Heart Mountain’s board who is a member of the board of the Carter Center, the former president’s nonprofit foundation.
Carter sent a video for the 2011 grand opening of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, saying “I’m proud and fortunate to call myself an early friend of the movement to seek justice for Japanese Americans who were wrongly uprooted and imprisoned by their government during wartime because of their ethnic background.”
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation considers itself proud and fortunate to have had his support. His passing is a loss for the world, and we send our best wishes to the Carter family.