TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) Bert Nakano, a Hawaii native who led a
campaign to win reparations for Japanese Americans forced into
internment camps during World War II, has died. He was 75.
Nakano died Saturday at a nursing home in this suburb south of
Los Angeles, said his son, Erich. The cause was respiratory failure
related to Parkinson's disease.
Retiring as an airline worker and travel agent, Nakano helped
found and was the top spokesman for the National Coalition for
Redress and Reparations, which in 1988 was rewarded with an apology
and $1.5 billion in payments from the federal government.
Nakano referenced his hard-working family when calling for
restitution.
``To people who would oppose reparations, I'd say, 'Give me back
my three years, my mother's health, my father's business, my
brother's ambition to become a doctor and they can keep their
money,''' he said in 1985. ``Can anyone return those things to
us?''
Nakano also pushed aging internment camp survivors to testify
before Congress.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife of 53 years,
Lillian; two grandchildren; four brothers and two sisters.
Funeral services have been scheduled for Saturday in Montebello.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)