[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 95 (Thursday, June 21, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


RECOGNITION OF THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EVACUATION AND INTERNMENT OF 
                           JAPANESE AMERICANS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 21, 2012

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 70th Anniversary 
of the evacuation and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War 
II.
  The philosopher George Santayana once said: ``Those who cannot 
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'' Yet, during wartime, 
our nation repeatedly sacrifices civil liberties to appease unwarranted 
fears. As the United States fought against tyranny abroad, our 
government detained American citizens of Japanese descent, solely 
because of their race.
  In 1942 Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, 
calling for the exclusion and internment of all Japanese Americans on 
the West Coast. Kiyo Yoshimura was one of the people interned. In 1942 
government officials ordered Yoshimura and her family to board a bus, 
without telling them where it would take them.
  They arrived at Tanforan, a horse stable, where they would live for 
about six months before being shipped off to a more permanent 
internment camp in Utah. At Tanforan they lived behind barbed wire, 
smelling the manure from the horses that had previously inhabited the 
same space. They were denied the dignity of privacy as they bathed or 
used the bathroom in public latrines. They were treated like enemies of 
the state and debased like animals.
  The United States government interned 8,000 families at Tanforan, and 
120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were sent to internment camps along 
the Pacific Coast. These Japanese-Americans were hardworking, law-
abiding people. Some of them served in the military and fought in 
Europe.
  Most Japanese Americans chose to remain silent about their 
experiences at internment camps, but it had a lasting impact on them. 
The government took their homes and their possessions. They had to find 
new jobs, build new communities and pick up the pieces of their broken 
lives.
  In 1988 Ronald Reagan signed legislation apologizing for the 
internment of Japanese Americans. The law stated that government 
actions were based on race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of 
political leadership. Japanese Americans received reparations.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the House of Representatives join me in 
commemorating the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. 
During this dark period of our nation's history fear eclipsed freedom 
and as national leaders, it is our duty to ensure that this never 
happens again.