Responsibility for Historical Injustices: Reconceiving the Case for Reparations

The twentieth century ended with the vindication of many of its most mistreated victims' cries for reparation.2 Holocaust survivors retrieved over $8 billion in assets frozen in bank accounts or looted by the Nazis;3 Japanese Americans interned during World War II received compensation from the U.S. government;4 Chile compensated descendants of Pinochet's victims;5 Japan redressed Korean "comfort women"; 6 and Canada paid damages to Aboriginals for forced assimilation of their children.7 Absent from the list was the longest suffering and most visible of groups seeking repair - African Americans.8