[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 24 (Wednesday, March 1, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E244-E245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REMEMBER INTERNMENT OF AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR II

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 1, 2006

  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, on February 19, 1942, 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing 
the Secretary of War to define military areas in which ``the right of 
any person to enter, remain in or leave shall be subject to whatever 
restrictions'' are deemed ``necessary or desirable.''
  By the spring of 1942, California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona 
were designated as military areas.
  In May of 1942, Santa Clara Valley Japanese Americans were ordered to 
``close their affairs promptly, and make their own arrangements for 
disposal of personal and real property.''
  Official government fliers were posted around California, Arizona and 
Washington instructing families to report to various assembly centers 
with just the bare necessities, leaving behind their homes, their 
lives, and most personal belongings.
  Because permanent camps were not yet built, large community gathering 
places, such as the Tanforan Racetrack in San Mateo County in Northern 
California and the Santa Anita Racetrack in Southern California became 
home to Japanese internees for several months before being moved.
  San Francisco Bay Area Japanese Americans were forced to live in 
horse stables at the Tanforan Racetrack until a permanent camp was 
built for them.
  Eleven thousand Japanese Americans and aliens were evacuated from 
their homes and incarcerated throughout the duration of the war.
  Three thousand of those interned were Japanese Americans from Santa 
Clara Valley.
  By the fall of 1942, most internees were transported to camps far 
away from home, to internment camps in Arizona, Northern and Central 
California, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and even as far away as Arkansas.
  Most remained in internment camps until the end of the war--3 long 
years later.
  The horror for Japanese Americans did not end upon their return to 
Santa Clara County in 1945 at the end of the war. Upon release, 
approximately 7,000 Japanese Americans moved to Santa Clara Valley.
  Most had no shelter, food, money, much less a job.
  Some returned to find their homes looted and destroyed.
  The San Jose Buddhist Church offered what it could--shelter and hot 
meals for most families.
  In Santa Clara County, the family of Bob Peckham (later to become 
Federal District Court Judge Bob Peckham) took title to the property of 
Japanese-American neighbors and was able to preserve property and 
return it at the end of the internment, so people in our area in some 
cases were saved the loss of their homes and businesses.
  All of this happened before I was born.
  But I remember very well learning about it even before it was added 
to the history textbooks.
  My mother was a young woman in 1942. My dad was in the army and she 
was building airplanes at Douglas Aircraft for the war effort.
  She told me about driving past the Tanforan Racetrack and how ashamed 
and guilty she felt. There were people locked up at the race track--
living in horse stables--who she knew had done nothing wrong. People 
who had been her neighbors had been rounded up suddenly and taken away.

[[Page E245]]

  My mother told me how helpless she felt. She knew what her government 
was doing was wrong but she didn't know how to change it. She felt 
powerless but also felt guilty and ashamed because of what the United 
States government had done.
  She was a life long Democrat and cast her first Presidential vote for 
FDR . . . but she never agreed with what he did to her neighbors.
  There was no apology, no financial support, no help from the Federal 
Government until many years later.
  Finally, on February 19, 1976 President Gerald Ford formally 
rescinded Executive Order 9066.
  And, at long last, on July 21, 1980 Congress adopted legislation 
establishing the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of 
Civilians (CWRIC) to investigate the claim that the incarceration of 
Japanese Americans and legal resident aliens during World War II was 
justified by military necessity.
  On August 10, 1988 the Civil Liberties Act was signed into law, 
authorizing payments of $20,000 to each person that suffered from 
internment and established the Office of Redress to identify, locate, 
and pay these individuals, 82,219 were paid.

  By then my neighbors and my parents neighbors who had been unjustly 
incarcerated--Ed Kawazoe, Jimi Yamaichi, Ted and Raiko, and many 
others--received at long last an apology. Some lived long enough to 
receive the compensation provided for in the law.
  These efforts were celebrated in the community of Japanese Americans. 
But they were also celebrated in the broader community because 
Americans who were not incarcerated, like my mother, felt the shame and 
the guilt.
  And while an apology could not undo the injustice and the 
compensation did not fully cover the loss, it helped that our country 
admitted the mistake and tried to make amends.
  On March 4, 2004 H. Res. 56, introduced by Congressman Mike Honda, 
passed the House by a unanimous vote of 404-0. The resolution supports 
the goals of the Japanese, German, and Italian American communities in 
recognizing a National Day of Remembrance on the day FDR signed the 
infamous Executive Order 9066--February 19, 1942. It also seeks to 
increase public awareness of the events surrounding the restriction, 
exclusion, and internment of individuals and families during World War 
II.
  Today, I support Mr. Honda's resolution to recognize February 19th as 
the Day of Remembrance. It is the least we can do--spend one day per 
year reflecting on the horrors of internment, remember those who 
suffered, and work to find ways never to repeat that terrible page in 
history.

                          ____________________