California cities
right a old wrong

Sometimes it takes Americans a long time to do the right thing but, more often than not, eventually they do.

City officials in Stockton, Calif., have just discovered a 58-year-old resolution on their books that opposed the return of Americans of Japanese Ancestry to their homes in California from the desolate camps in which they had been incarcerated in 1942 shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

It came to light after a similar resolution had been discovered in the town of Upland and quickly rescinded in June. The town officials then sent word to all the other municipalities in California suggesting that they search their archives. That turned up Resolution 13,746 in Stockton.

The mayor, Gary Podesto, told the Associated Press: "Sometimes we make difficult decisions and sometimes we make easy decisions. This is an easy decision. Rescind Resolution 13,746."

--Richard Halloran

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