Exploring WWII treatment of Japanese-Americans

Almost 40 years after the roundup and relocation of 120,000 Japanese- Americans and Alaskan islanders during World War II, a federal Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians hopes to determine if the actions were wrong.

The relocation of Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals living in the United States in 1942 followed the war scare along the West Coast after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Internment of over 850 Aleutians followed occupation of some Aleutian islands by Japanese troops.

The commission holds its first hearing here Tuesday. More hearings are planned in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Seattle; Anchorage, Alaska; Unalaska, Aleutian Islands; St. Paul, Pribilof Island s; and Chicago.