International Journal of Applied Economics, March 2012; Human Capital Investment and the Internment of Japanese Americans during WWII: A Public Choice Approach* Steven B. Caudill and Franklin G. Mixon, Jr.

The first parts of this article go into the history of persons of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. and the type of labor they performed. They it goes into the reasons for the internment, including the prejudice felt by certain people in California. Since this deals with economics I'll concentrate my comments on that.

The article makes the following points:

1. ...conservative estimate of Japanese property losses stood at $400 million.

2. After the war, the Japanese-American Citizen’s League argued for compensation for evacuees. Their efforts were rewarded when, on July 2, 1948, President Truman signed the Japanese Evacuation Claims Act. Evacuees were given eighteen months from the date of passage to file a claim with the federal government for property loss compensation. Evacuees filed 23,689 claims totaling over $131 million. Most of the claims were filed for less than $2,500, which was the limit directly payable from the funds appropriated by the Act. The total is less than one third of the Federal Reserve Bank's conservative estimate. Much later, in 1988, in recognition of the inadequacy of the compensation provided by the Japanese Evacuation Claims Act, the federal government included a provision in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that re-addressed the situation . First, in the bill the government apologized to Japanese Americans for the internment, also admitting that the relocation was not justified for security reasons. Second, the bill required that the surviving internees were paid a lump sum of $20,000 each.

3. Education of Nisei, whites and blacks during that time. The Appendix clearly shows that Nisei education attainment during the period is highest, followed by Whites, and then Blacks.

4. This study has presented evidence suggesting that the policies pursued by the governments of the U.S. and the State of California, particularly the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, contributed to higher postwar investments in formal education among that segment of the U.S. population. The government’s confiscatory policies greatly increased the risk of future physical capital investments. This led naturally to an increase in Japanese-American investments in relatively safe human capital. Empirical evidence consistent with this hypothesis is presented based on survey data from the 1966 Japanese-American Research Project and the 1960 United States Census.

The article if moderately length and goes into detail which, frankly, is not something I am qualified to comment on in specifics.

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