Minorities: A Wrong Partially Righted

There seems to be a De Tocqueville quote to fit almost every action in contemporary America. But it was particularly apt to record last week that he wrote, in 1835, that "the great privilege of the Americans does not consist in being more enlightened than other nations, but in being able to repair the faults they may commit."

One particularly grievous fault committed by Americans was the World War II internment of 112,985 Japanese-Americans in dreary camps for as long as four years. They lost an estimated $400 million in confiscated property, earned no more than $19 a month in...