TAKE ACTION: We're Paying War Reparations to Guam for What Japan Did

RedState.com ^ | today | Jeff Emanuel

[enough_idiocy]

"House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and his eight compatriots, all of whom have co-sponsored a bill that would require that America pay reparations to the people of Guam for - get this - the actions of the Japanese in World War II.

According to the bill (HR.1595, the "Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act"), the people of Guam:

suffered unspeakable harm as a result of the occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II , by being subjected to death, rape, severe personal injury, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, or internment.

For this reason (?), "the Secretary of the Treasury shall make payments" to WWII survivors and their descendants on Guam for the brutal actions of a third party.

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? After all, the US is the largest aid donor on the planet; it's only logical that we should rebuild, repatriate, and reparate every country that has been hurt by every war that we can find. Let's not stop with Guam - let's include everybody from Carthage on up to the present. Should we pay reparations to the Koreans for the Mongol invasions of the 14th century, and to the Spanish for the loss of their Armada in 1588? Why not?

And while this bill holds up $126,000,000.00 for the repayment of the people of Guam for what the Japanese did (as well as $5,000,000.00 for "the Secretary of the Interior [to] establish a grants program [to]...award grants for research, educational, and media activities that memorialize the events surrounding the occupation of Guam during World War II, honor the loyalty of the people of Guam during such occupation, or both, for purposes of appropriately illuminating and interpreting the causes and circumstances of such occupation and other similar occupations during a war"), our soldiers can't even get a dime in supplemental appropriations.

Way to go, Democrats. Your "blame America first" (even for things we have nothing to do with), anti-US soldier attitudes, actions, and mindsets have just been taken to a new level."

[zip]

ping

[Cheburashka]

Thanks for this enlightening post. What say you to the post below yours?
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The 1945 Act appears to be capped at $5,000. In other words, (hypothetically) you lose your mother, father, three brothers and sisters and you get: $5,000. In 1945 dollars. On Guam. Is that adequate compensation? I can't judge that.

But a look at the present act and it screams PORK!!!!

Maybe some more money is justified, but not the amounts they're talking about. And a 5 billion dollar fund is a sick joke.

[steveegg]

The 1945 Act appears to be capped at $5,000. In other words, (hypothetically) you lose your mother, father, three brothers and sisters and you get: $5,000. In 1945 dollars. On Guam. Is that adequate compensation? I can't judge that.

Actually, it wasn't a hard cap, and it didn't apply to death or injury claims. The $5,000 (which is somewhere north of $52,000 in 2007 dollars) limit applied only to what the Department of the Navy could approve on its own authority. Anything beyond $5,000, as well as all death and injury claims, could still be pursued, only the approval of the settlement of such claims needed to go through Congress.

[enough_idiocy]

The agreement that Clinton signed re: Nazi eras crimes wasn’t any better than that, and that was implemented in the 1990s. Clinton, without going to Congress, worked with Shroeder to create the German Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future”, people get 5 and under from the cases I’ve read, and US courts don’t allow victims living here or their decedents to sue in federal courts opting instead to defer to that program.

[investigateworld]

What kind of lunacy is this...? Oh yeah, the Democratic kind.

In this era, no nation has ever been punished for abusing US military POWs

[bamahead]

ping

[K-oneTexas]

From Today’s ‘ Neal’s Nuze’ (05/07/07):

http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

MORE OF YOUR TAX MONEY AT WORK

Brace yourself for this one. Your tax dollars are being called upon to pay for reparations to the people of Guam for the Japanese’s actions in WWII. That’s right. You read it correctly! Americans will pay for what Japanese did in a war that was fought over 50 years ago.

Here’s the story. A bill will be introduced this week in the House called the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act. This act calls for reparations—costing about $135 million—for the “unspeakable harm as a result of the occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II, by being subjected to death, rape, severe personal injury, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, or internment.” Now mind you, these are terrible things that happened to the people of Guam, but why do I have to pay for it? And why now?

Well it turns out that Truman signed an agreement with Japan in 1951 basically stating that from then on, Japan is not responsible for “individual American war claims.” Because Guam is a U.S. territory, the burden to compensate for Japanese abuses falls on U.S. taxpayers. Thanks a lot, Harry Truman. You are a great American Democrat.

But in 2003, Bush authorized the appointment of the Guam War Claims Review Commission. I guess we can assume that this was the result.

Now here’s an interesting question. I have heard, though I have never taken the time to verify, that there was only one major war engaged in by the U.S. where U.S. taxpayers didn’t fork over huge sums to rebuild the loser. That would be the War Between the States .. sometimes erroneously referred to as the “Civil War”

[traviskicks]

Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

[TheKidster]

Typical - not surprising, this is what the federal government does best - believe the tagline!

[WesternPacific]

This is nothing compared to the monies we spend on Guam because of Guam's mismanagement and inability to maintain what the Federal government has already built. Ask anyone who has lived on Guam for any length of time and you will hear the same story of local government incompetence.

The Ordot dump has been scheduled for closure for 20+ years and the locals can't decide where to move it, thus costing mounting fines by the EPA. The Guam Public School System is a federal money pit that can compete with any pork program in the US. The island's infrastructure is in such disarray, because of no planned maintenance programs, it will take the Federal government to come in AGAIN to rebuild it.

The only governmental corruption cases to be prosecuted and won were cases brought by Federal prosecutors because the local judicial system can not convict their own, such as x-governor Carl T.C. Gutierrez.

The taxpayers need to know exactly how much money has already been spent on Guam.

The people of Guam need to stop depending on their Uncle Sam for their government officials incompetence.

[WesternPacific]

This act calls for reparations—costing about $135 million

This $135 million is close to the local Guam government's operating deficit and needed amount to balance its budget. What is interesting is the Supreme Court just decided a case that went against Guam's governor wish to borrow large amounts of monies. This government will be declared bankrupt in the near future and the US taxpayers will have to bail it out anyway.

[gondramB]

>>My rep’s office could not explain to me why we’re spending Americans’ money to compensate Guam for what Japan did.<<

Starting with American Holocaust suriviors, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, part of the department of Justice has pursued claims like this 43 times. Basically we go ahead and pay the survivors and then try to get the money back from the other government. We have somewhat better luck than the victims could directly.

In some cases, like with Germany, we got reimbursed. In other cases, like with Cuba seized assets of the aggressor government came into play (thanks largely to Jesse Helms, one the champions of this program). In other cases we never get the money back.

I haven’t followed Guam closely but a commission report (in 2004, I think) found that the were not treated the same as other Americans on war claims matters.

Maybe this is too much money but it does seem, in principle, consistent with U.S. policy since 1954.

[gondramB]

>>This $135 million is close to the local Guam government’s operating deficit and needed amount to balance its budget. What is interesting is the Supreme Court just decided a case that went against Guam’s governor wish to borrow large amounts of monies. This government will be declared bankrupt in the near future and the US taxpayers will have to bail it out anyway.<<

But its not clear that this money would go to the government in Guam - I think its additional money. But you make a good point about the size of the amount.

[WesternPacific]

Anything going to Guam will go through the local Government somehow. The local gov. will set up a department to validate people’s claims for the money. Same thing happened when the Feds. allowed Fed. controlled land to go back to the locals.

[gondramB]

>>Anything going to Guam will go through the local Government somehow. The local gov. will set up a department to validate people’s claims for the money. Same thing happened when the Feds. allowed Fed. controlled land to go back to the locals.<<

Its souns like you know a lot mnore about Guam than I do so I’ll defer to you there.

However, Foreign Claims Settlement Commission money is supposed to go directly the effected individuals. These things take a long time. It wasn’t until 1995 that we finally paid the Americans effected when communists took Albania in 1945. And it wasn’t until 1998 that Germany paid us back for money we distributed in the 50’s.

This new amount is really large, though. There is something odd going on. The Albanian money in 1995 was only a couple of million.

[Little Ray]

Sorry, but we actually signed a treaty with Japan regarding this. We assumed responsibility for payments.
Naturally, this was a Democrat President, Truman.
But, since Guam can’t make any claims against Japan, we have to pay.
Given the behavior of the Japanese during WWII, $126 million is probably pretty cheap.

[WhiteGuy]

It’s all part of the great compromise.....................

There will be many more of these wealth transfer initiatives that will benefit democrats either personally or politically.

Any rational person would realize that these sorts of spending bills are wrong for a number of reasons.

Yet many of them will be signed into law, along with subsequent earmarks, by a republican lame-duck president..............................................

In exchange for “emergency” “war-cost” funding that does not include any strings.

Yep, both sides will posture and make threats and accusations before quietly satisfying their own agendas behind closed doors.

wait and see...................

( of course I hope I’m wrong...... )

[kcar]

Apparently the buck didn’t stop at Truman.

[LibertarianInExile]

You sound like a local.

The time I spent on Guam was perhaps the best education I could ever have had in just how badly even the most effective part of the American government—the military—can f things up. That island is an oligarchic kleptocracy. And notwithstanding the efforts of some here to claim American innocence for Guam’s ills, we sure didn’t provide them with a good example of how good government is run or elected. Just imagine the years in which we showed them how bureaucracy is supposed to run (1950-1970) and how government is supposed to run (1950-1980). Not that it helped having us dump the some of most corrupt Vietnamese and Filipinos on the island, after the fall of Saigon and the rise of Corey Aquino, either.

That place reminded me of Miami—without the art deco charm.

[bobsunshine]

Just got off the phone with my congressman’s office (Connie Mack) and he said that this bill passed, 288 to 133. It now goes to the Senate where it is in committee. They will decide either to attach to another bill, not vote on it, or put out as a separate bill.

CALL your Senator and tell him or her you are against this bill. If Congress wants monies to be paid to the Guam residents for actions caused by Japan, they should contact Japan. Send the monies from this bill to the tornado victims.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll309.xml